Odisha HC orders probe into Death of woman and baby due to alleged medical negligence

Cuttack: The Odisha High Court passed an order, directing a probe into the incident behind the death of a woman and her baby in 2015, who had allegedly died due to medical negligence. 

As per a media report in the Live Law, the petition was filed by the father-in-law of the woman whose baby had passed away due to intrauterine infection and she had also died on 25th March 2015 during the course of her treatment.  

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The petition alleged that the death of the woman and the baby was caused due to medical negligence which was avoidable. The judgement was passed by the Division Bench of Chief Justice Dr S. Muralidhar and Justice Radha Krishna Pattanaik who observed that the pleadings in the petition presented disputed questions of fact with the opposite parties claiming that there was no medical negligence. 

Also, the opposite parties claimed to have conducted an investigation into the maternal death of the woman. The court requested the State Commission for Women, Odisha (SCWO) to assist in the task so as to obtain an objective assessment of the materials on record. 

Giving directions, the court observed, "(i) A complete set of papers will be made available by the Registry of this Court to the Secretary, SCWO, Toshali Plaza, Satyanagar, Bhubaneswar not later than 1st June 2022."

"The SCWO will constitute an appropriate enquiry team to examine the papers and also visit and record statements of the Petitioner and his family members, the concerned treating doctors, the place of treatment, the medical case record and make an assessment as to the veracity of the claims of either party on the basis of the materials gathered. The SCWO can also take the assistance of a qualified medical professional for making its assessment," it said. 

Further, the court observed, "the report of the SCWO pursuant to the above directions be made available to this Court not later than 1st July 2022."

The court, while hearing the petition on 29th November 2021, had directed the setting up of the 'Maternal Death Review Board' for effective implementation of the Janani Surakshya Yojana. The then bench of Chief Justice Dr S. Muralidhar and Justice Bibhu Prasad Routray had observed that the issues raised in the petition had been comprehensively dealt with in a judgment of the Delhi High Court in Laxmi Mandal v. Deen Dayal Harinagar Hospital (2010), which was authored by Justice Muralidhar himself.

The Court had therein directed the State to present before it a comprehensive plan which will include payment of compensation for maternal death on account of the failure of the health care system in the individual case and for the conduct of a maternal death audit as was done in the case of Laxmi Mandal. 

The counsel for the petitioner told the court that there were 38 other writ petitions pending before a Single Judge Bench of the Court which involved the same issue. Subsequently, the court held that the said writ petitions, the list of which were provided by the counsel to the Court, would be listed along with the present case, reports the Live Law. 

The matter would now be heard next on 1st August 2022. 

The order can be accessed through the following link, https://medicaldialogues.in/pdf_upload/sambara-sabar-v-state-of-odisha-17-may-2022-418496-177075.pdf

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