Endosulfan victim dies after testicle surgery, Kasaragod hospital ordered to pay ₹20 lakh compensation


Kasaragod:
The District Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission has held a private hospital and its anaesthetist responsible for the death of a 21-year-old endosulfan victim who lived with autism, and ordered them to pay ₹13.30 lakh as compensation to his parents, along with ₹25,000 towards legal expenses.

Kanhangad’s Arimala Hospital, found guilty of medical negligence, will in effect have to pay at least ₹19.54 lakh once the 6% interest from February 7, 2018, is added -- far more than the ₹15 lakh the parents had originally sought.

For K S Mathew (55) and Thankamma Mathew (51) of Panathady panchayat, it was a lonely eight-year fight to hold the hospital accountable after it first tried to evade responsibility and then blamed them for “not disclosing” Jince Mathew’s condition. Jince was also deaf and mute.

“Back then, our priest said Jince must be in heaven and we should let go,” Mathew said. “Our MLA asked us to let go because Jince, after all, was not keeping well. The doctors on the medical board asked us to let go because no doctor will deliberately kill a patient. The police asked us to let go because we had given our consent for the surgery,” he said. “We were alone… in our suffering and prayer.”

The commission ruled in favour of the parents after rejecting the findings of the Apex Medical Board, a panel of doctors that had exonerated the hospital. The panel’s “opinion was not supported by reasons or analysis”, the commission noted. It instead relied on the autopsy report from Kannur Government Medical College, Pariyaram, which concluded that Jince died due to “anaesthetic complications involving the respiratory system”.

Any remaining ambiguity was removed by the testimony of the forensic surgeon, Prof S Gopalakrishna Pillai, who conducted the autopsy.

The express surgery
On March 4, 2017, Mathew brought Jince to Arimala Hospital with severe pain in his testicles. “He was in pain for four days but was hesitant to tell me. When he finally opened up, we got on the scooter and went straight to Arimala,” Mathew said.

As instructed by the doctors over the phone, they did a scan before reaching the hospital. The scan confirmed a torsion, and surgeon Dr Jayaprakash P Upadya advised immediate surgery to remove the affected testicle. “I was inclined to go to Mangaluru, but the doctor said it was an emergency,” Mathew said.

Dr Jayaprakash reportedly described it as a minor procedure, saying Jince could have tea and biscuits within 30 minutes of the surgery.

Jince was taken straight into the operation theatre, where Dr Sadiq Ummer, the anaesthetist, administered the anaesthesia. He never regained consciousness. “Half an hour became two hours, then four. I knew something had gone wrong. By 9.30 pm, they told me Jince had suffered a heart attack and was put on a ventilator,” Mathew said.

A distraught Mathew arranged an ambulance with a ventilator from Payyannur and took his son to Kasturba Medical College Hospital in Mangaluru on March 5, 2017. “They did not admit him. We then went to Father Muller Hospital, which the Arimala doctors recommended,” he said.

Jince died on March 11, 2017, seven days after what was supposed to be a minor surgery

An FIR was filed. The family moved the Human Rights Commission. When nothing changed, they approached the consumer commission on February 7, 2018.

Mathew told the commission that Prof Pillai informed him that Jince did not regain consciousness because he had received an excessive dose of anaesthesia. Prof Pillai also reportedly said that the tube inserted into his windpipe to help him breathe had instead blocked his airway -- and that these two factors together caused his death.

The bench rejected the Apex Medical Board’s opinion and accepted the forensic findings as they were “better supported by facts and reasoning”.

The hospital first claimed that Jince had regained consciousness before reaching Father Muller Hospital. It then said Mathew had failed to inform them that Jince was an endosulfan victim or about his medication regimen. The commission said this was “not believable”, noting that the hospital should have taken “enhanced anaesthetic precautions”.

The compensation
The commission applied the multiplier method used in motor accident cases and calculated ₹10.80 lakh as compensation for loss of life (based on a presumed monthly income of ₹10,000). It added ₹50,000 for funeral expenses, ₹1 lakh for the family’s pain and suffering, and ₹1 lakh for deficiency in service, bringing the total to ₹13.30 lakh. The bench — president Krishnan K and member Beena K G — also ordered a 6% annual interest from the date of the petition until payment.

Jince studied at St Joseph Special School, Chullikkara. “He always came first in sports and was good with computers. We cherished every achievement of his,” Mathew said.