On October 17, 2015, Usha Verma of Shimla had gall bladder stones, for which she underwent surgery at Government Multi Specialty Hospital (GMSH) in Sector 16, Chandigarh. However, a few days after surgery, she felt pain in her stomach. The problem was identified as a 12 cm drain pipe found left inside her body. Advertising The Consumer Forum of Chandigarh, which heard the matter, has ordered the GMSH-16 superintendent and another surgeon — to pay Verma Rs 4 lakh on grounds of medical negligence, Rs 2 lakh as compensation for pain and harassment and Rs 50,000 as cost of litigation. Verma stated that she got admitted at GMSH-16 on October 16, 2015, for a laparoscopic procedure for removal of gall bladder on recommendation of one of the doctors. The procedure was performed by the surgeons the next day. Verma was then discharged on October 19. She then again visited GMSH for the removal of the drain pipe on October 21. However, as per her complaint, the drain pipe was removed negligently by both surgeons and paramedical staff. Verma then underwent an ultrasound on the same day and she was told by one of the doctors that everything is normal and she need not worry. However, she started experiencing pain in her stomach after a few days. Advertising On October 26, 2015, a CT scan revealed the presence of a foreign object — “a hyper dense tubular structure seen in GB fossa extending anterior to the stomach in the peritoneal cavity”. She contacted one of the doctors, who told her she would be operated upon again due to negligence of the hospital and their employees and the second surgery was performed by three surgeons of the the hospital on October 29, 2015, and the foreign body was removed. Verma further alleged that the drain pipe used was too thick and banned, while the hospital responded that it was a “special case”. She thus filed a formal complaint with the Chandigarh Consumer Court. The GMSH-16 superintendent in reply submitted that “there was no carelessness on the part of GMSH-16 as well as surgeons”. In its reply, it said that “the drain pipe was removed by para medical staff and it was observed that the complete inserted portion of the drain pipe which was 21 cm had not come out and the portion which came out was only 9 cm, thus 12 cm pipe remained inside, which was not due to their negligence, that the drain was broken or fractured as it could break or develop fracture due to twist, jerks and heavy movements or due to inherent nature of the material the drain pipe was made of”. The forum bench of Rattan Singh Thakur (president), Surjeet Kaur (member) and Suresh Sardana (member) held that Dr Sarabjeet Singh had simply performed a corrective surgery and thus gave him a clean chit. It further observed that “only with the use of full force with both hands on both sides of the (sample) pipe it was broken and not otherwise. However, in the given situation, when one end of the pipe was inside and another outside, both corners of the pipe could not have been caught and even if there was stretching on the outer drain, it was to come out and there was no question of it being broken.” The forum has directed the hospital and two surgeons to comply the order within 30 days from the date of receipt of its certified copy, failing which, they shall make the payment with interest at 9 percent per annum from the date of the order, till realisation.

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