PANAJI
The Supreme Court earlier this month granted relief to Goa-based chartered accountant Sheela Naik Gaunekar after twenty years of battling Chennai-based Apollo Hospitals Ltd. It also ordered payment of compensation of Rs 50 lakh for medical negligence causing the death of her husband after an angioplasty treatment.
H N Gaunekar underwent angioplasty treatment at Apollo Hospitals, Chennai in May 1995, but suffered a heart attack four days later. The wife had in 1996, filed a claim petition before the National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission alleging that the death of her husband was on “account of the medical negligence on the part of the hospital and its doctors and due to deficiency of service.”
The Commission in its report said it had been proved by legal and substantive evidence on record that there was medical negligence on the part of the hospital. It reasoned that the hospital had not taken proper post-operative care of Gaunekar. The Commission had also awarded a compensation of Rs 2 lakh along with interest at the rate of six per cent per annum.
But Sheela Gaunekar challenged the commission order saying it had erred in awarding Rs 2 lakh as the amount of compensation. She then filed a Civil Appeals in the Supreme Court in the year 2005.
On October 5 this year, the SC passed an order in which it calculated, based on the income declaration of the deceased who was 60 years old when he passed away, that the annual loss of dependency came to Rs 29,70,000.
Taking into account the twenty years that have passed since the litigation process in 1996, the SC ordered awarding Rs 40 lakh as compensation. An additional sum of Rs 10 lakh was also ordered to be awarded on account of mental agony, loss of head of family, loss of consortium and loss of love and affection. The rate of interest was also increased from six per cent to nine per cent per annum.
SC also ordered that of the Rs 50 lakh compensation, Rs 10 lakh was to be paid by the doctor that performed the surgery, Dr Mathews Samuel Kalarickal. Incidentally, Dr Kalarickal is one of the country’s best known doctors involved in performing angioplasty.
The Apex Court directed the hospital to comply with its order and submit a compliance report within the period of eight weeks from the date of receipt of the order.
The Gaunekars are well known in the field of education and were instrumental in forming the Vidya Vikas Mandal that has today become an educational hub for institutions like Vidya Vikas Academy, G R Kare College of Law and Damodar College. Sheela Gaunekar has also served as the chairman of the Vidya Vikas Academy for more than a decade.
