Mother of 3 was 42 when she slipped into a vegetative state following an allegedly flawed administration of anaesthesia.A 48-year-old Hyderabad woman, who spent six years in Lilavati Hospital after a botched up hysterectomy surgery, returned home last week with the hospital agreeing to waive off her Rs 8 crore bill.Najma Khan, a mother of three, was 42 when she slipped into a coma following allegedly flawed administration of anesthesia before the surgery in September 2008. She has remained in a vegetative state since.In December 2008, three months after Najma slipped into coma, the doctor who had administered anesthesia to her was found dead in her room. Police suspected the doctor committed suicide.Mumbai Mirror first reported Najma’s tragedy in its February 8, 2011 edition when, in a shocking move, the hospital slapped a bill of Rs 3 crore on her family. Her husband, Mahmood Alam Khan, who owns a tobacco manufacturing unit in Andhra Pradesh, refused to pay and issued a notice to the hospital through his advocate Majeed Memon.While the hospital then allowed her to continue occupying the suite on the 11th floor and also allotted the adjoining suite to the family, the two sides kept trading charges – the hospital insisting that the family must pay up and vacate, and the Khans demanding that she be treated free of charge and the ‘guilty’ doctors be punished. A case was also filed with the Bandra police.Najma’s husband all along maintained that it was due to the hospital’s negligence that he wife had slipped into a coma. The hospital on its part claimed that Najma was provided the best medical care.In between, there were attempts to bring in doctors from foreign countries to treat her. However, on this issue too the two sides had differences as to who would foot the visiting medical teams’ bill.But as the bill kept piling up and Najma’s medical condition showed no improvement, the two sides realised that with the case going nowhere, they ought to sit down and arrive at a settlement.Last Saturday, Najma was airlifted and taken to her Hyderabad residence. The family now plans to shift her to a Ukraine for advanced treatment.Speaking to Mumbai Mirror from Hyderabad on Monday, Mahmood Khan said the hospital did not do him a favour by not raising a bill. “They have ruined my life; the value of life cannot be estimated in terms of money. Any amount of compensation cannot suffice in such a situation. The fact that I have not explored legal options to claim compensation speaks for itself. I just want my wife back the way she was before being admitted to Lilavatai,” he said.When Najma slipped into a coma their two sons and a daughter were 10, 17 and 20 respectively.Mahmood Khan said doctors in Ukraine, who have done expertise in stem cell therapy, have treated such cases before. “They have responded that they have successfully treated such cases. I will first go to Ukraine with an Indian doctor, study the situation and once things fall in place, I will take my there wife for treatment,” he said.While Lilavati Hospital declined to comment, senior lawyer Majeed Memon told Mumbai Mirror: “It was indeed very distressing and unfortunate that a young woman suffered total confinement at the hospital. The hospital authorities could not succeed in reviving or bringing any kind of improvement. On the other hand, the husband had to make hundreds of trips from Hyderabad to Mumbai to attend to his bedridden wife. Since there was no scope of improvement, it was found desirable that she be shifted outside India for some advanced treatment.”He added that Lilavati trustee Narendra Trivedi intervened on the hospital’s behalf and got the bills waived off. “The hospital authorities with the intervention of their trustee Narendra Trivedi and with the participation of our office team waived the entire bill running into a few crores. An atmosphere of amicable settlement was created for both sides and the patient was discharged with a no-due certificate. Both sides have closed the issue with no further grievances against each other.”