In a landmark verdict, the Supreme Court (SC) on Thursday ordered the Kolkata-based AMRI hospital and its three doctors to pay Rs5.96 crore within eight weeks as compensation to Indian-American doctor Kunal Saha for his wife’s death in 1998. This is the maximum compensation ordered by the court in a medical negligence case.

Saha’s wife Anuradha, a child psychologist, visited Kolkata during the summer vacation in 1998.After developing skin rashes, on April 7, she consulted Dr Sukumar Mukherjee, who without prescribing any medicine, asked her to rest. When the rashes reappeared on May 7, Mukherjee prescribed Depo-Medrol injection 80mg twice daily, a step which faulted by experts during court proceedings. Anuradha’s condition deteriorated and she had to be admitted at AMRI on May 11 under Mukherjee’s supervision. She passed away at Breach Candy hospital from the Toxic Epidermal Necrolysis syndrome on May 28.

Saha, an Ohio-based doctor, then filed cases against three doctors — Mukherjee, Dr Balram Prasad and Dr Baidyanath Halder — and the AMRI hospital.

A bench of justices SJ Mukhopadhaya and V Gopala Gowda ruled in his favour on Thursday. The court said of the Rs5.96 crore compensation, Dr Prasad and Dr Mukherjee will have to pay Rs10 lakh each and Dr Halder Rs5 lakh to Saha within eight weeks. The remaining amount along with the interest will be paid by the hospital. A compliance report has to be filed before the court after the payment of the compensation amount.

Saha was thrilled with the verdict. “This will send out a strong message to all negligent doctors and unscrupulous hospitals that are reaping (sic) innocent patients every day across India. The verdict is also likely to increase the value of every human life in India,” he said.

The court while awarding the compensation also highlighted the piling medical negligence cases in the country at various forums. It said: “The doctors, hospitals, nursing homes and other connected establishments are to be dealt with strictly if they are found to be negligent with patients who come to them pawning all their money with the hope of living a better life with dignity.”

In 2009, the Supreme Court found the AMRI hospital guilty of medical negligence and referred Anuradha’s case to the National Consumer Dispute Redressal Commission (NCDRC), which fixed the compensation amount to Rs1.7 crore. Saha, however, challenged the verdict in the apex court and demanded Rs200 crore as compensation.

In an earlier verdict, the Supreme Court had ordered a record Rs1 crore as compensation to Prashant Dhananka, a Bangalore-based software engineer. Dhananka, 21, was a final year engineering student in 1990 when he went for a regular chest biopsy at Hyderabad’s Nizam’s Institute of Medical Sciences. He came out paralysed waist downwards.