Record 1.7 crore Compensation for medical Negligence

New Delhi: A US-based doctor was awarded a record compensation of Rs 1.73 crore in a medical negligence case by the National Consumer Dispute Redressal Commission on Friday.
Three doctors and Advance Medicare and Research Institute, Kolkata, will have to pay the sum collectively.
Dr Kunal Saha’s wife, Anuradha, died of toxic epidermal necrolysis — a rare disease resulting in the peeling of skin in sheets — at Mumbai’s Breach Candy Hospital on May 28, 1998. The Rs 1.73 crore compensation may be the highest yet in India. The Supreme Court, in May 2009, had awarded the highest ever compensation of Rs 1 crore to a wheelchair-bound Infosys engineer Prashant S Dhananka for medical negligence.
In this case, Anuradha, a child-psychologist, on holiday with her husband Dr Kunal Saha in Kolkata, in April-May 2008, developed rashes and had gone to AMRI. As an out-patient she was treated and when she showed no improvement, was admitted in the hospital a few days later.
Her condition further deteriorated and she was moved to Breach Candy Hospital, Mumbai, by air ambulance. She died over a week later, on May 28, 1998. A flurry of lawsuits followed her death.
Initially, 26 individuals were served legal notice and Kunal claimed a total compensation of over Rs 55 crore.