Bhubaneswar: The Odisha Human Rights Commission (OHRC) Friday directed the state Health secretary to pay Rs 6 lakh as compensation to a youth who became handicapped due to medical negligence in 2017. The OHRC issued the direction while hearing a plea lodged by the victim’s mother, Manjulata Nayak, in 2018.
According to sources, Tapas Kumar Nayak, an 18-year-old college student, was reportedly admitted to the District Headquarters Hospital (DHH) in Bhadrak for treatment of acute gastroenteritis October 22, 2017.
Manjulata alleged in her plea that the staffers at the hospital wrongfully administered an IV injection in the muscles following which her son started developing swelling in his left hand which also started blackening.
Later, his condition deteriorated fast as his hand lost sensation as well. The authorities at the DHH soon referred him to SCB Medical College and Hospital for treatment.
Meanwhile, the doctors at the SCB attended Tapas allegedly after 12 hours of his admission October 23, 2017. The situation had become so worse that the doctors informed the parents for immediate operation on his left hand to avoid amputation.
However, when the complainant requested the surgery doctors for immediate operation, they expressed their inability to operate early. The victim was got operated at the private hospital that cost more than Rs 3 lakh. The doctors at a private hospital in Cuttack amputated two fingers of Tapas who became handicapped in a very early age.
Her mother approached the commission seeking justice for her son.
The rights body asked the state government to pay Rs 6 lakh to the victim for the medical negligence with two months period.