HIV Infected Blood Transfusion: Hospital directed to pay Rs 20 lakh to patient

Chennai:  A city civil court has directed the dean of the Institute of Child Health and Hospital here to pay Rs 20 lakh as compensation to a boy for transfusion of HIV-infected blood after a surgery.

The XVIIth additional city civil court judge V Thenmozhe, who gave the order recently, said, The hospital has not produced any documentary evidence to prove the fact that the blood transfused to the boy was tested or screened to exclude that the blood was not affected by HIV and other virus."

The hospital, citing the rule of Drugs and Cosmetics 1940, contended that the records concerned would be kept only for five years and then destroyed.

No proof was produced by the hospital that the records were destroyed.

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The judge said the doctors of the government hospital, who treated the boy were liable for medical negligence. As a torturous liability, the dean of the hospital who is the employer of the doctors and employees are liable to pay the compensation," the judge said. According to the boy''s mother, he was affected by diarrhoea and vomiting in December 1998 when he was seven months old and the boy was admitted to the government childrens hospital in February 1999.