The High Court has ordered Tk 900,000 in compensation for a woman, who was left with gauze in her body after a childbirth surgery at a clinic in the southern district of Patuakhali.
Published : 13 Dec 2017, 01:59 PM
The man, who had performed the surgery on Maksuda Begum and later turned out to be a fake doctor, will have to pay Tk 500,000 while the clinic will bear the remaining Tk 400,000.
On Jul 22, a newspaper reported an incident of removing surgical gauze from the woman’s stomach, three and a half months into the operation.
According to the newspaper report, Maksuda had been taken to Niramoy Diagnostic Centre and Clinic in Bauphal Upazila, where she gave birth to a daughter after surgery and was released a few days later.
She was taken back to the clinic a month later with stomach pains, when the doctors prescribed painkillers.
Maksuda then began running a high fever and was unable to eat. She was eventually admitted to Sher-e Bangla Medical College Hospital in Barisal at the recommendation of a Patuakhali doctor.
On Jul 12, surgical gauze was removed from Maksuda’s body.
The gauze had caused several perforations in her oesophagus, doctors said at the time.
The Patuakhali civil surgeon’s office has been ordered to oversee the matter.
After the incident was reported in the media, Supreme Court lawyer Md Shahid Ullah brought it to the court’s attention on Jul 23.
The same day, the court ordered the Patuakhali civil surgeon, Sher-e Bangla Medical College Hospital gynaecology head and the clinic’s owner to appear before it on Aug 1.
It had also issued a rule asking why charges of negligence will not be brought against those involved and ordered nine people, including the health secretary and the chief of the health department, to explain within four weeks.
The court later ordered the civil surgeon to investigate the matter and file a report, when it was found the man who performed the C-section on Maksuda was not a doctor at all.
Arjun Chakrabarty, who surrendered to the High Court on Dec 1 and was formally arrested in a case filed with the local Bauphal police, worked at the clinic with a fake doctor’s licence under the name of Rajan Das.
The victim Maksuda Begum had moved the High Court separately seeking Tk 2.86 million in damages, but the matter was not heard on Wednesday, said lawyers.