KATHMANDU, May 24: The Patan High Court has ordered Grande International Hospital to pay Rs 3.5 million in compensation to the family of Rihan Neupane for showing negligence in the child’s treatment.

A joint bench of judges Subash Poudel and Hari Prasad Poudel ordered the hospital to pay the compensation. The verdict was passed in response to a petition filed by Rihan’ parents Sanjeev Neupane and Ekata Ghimire (Neupane).

Prior to this, the Neupane couple had knocked on the door of Nepal Medical Council (NMC) for justice. The NMC, however, had only sought clarifications from the doctors concerned and the hospital, sparing them any further action. Miffed with the failure of NMC to act against the guilty doctors, they had then filed a writ petition against the hospital and doctors to provide compensation.

Advocate Diksha Kandel, who pleaded the case on behalf of the Neupane couple, said the High Court has ordered the hospital to provide the compensation while upholding the decision of the NMC to seek clarifications from the hospital and doctors concerned.

Rihan was born healthy through a surgery at Grande Hospital on June 26, 2018. But within the next half an hour, the newly-born baby was put in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). The child then suffered from the infection of klebsiella virus while in the NICU. As the situation got worse, the surgery of the head of the new-born child was conducted five times. It was only after 10 months that the Neupane couple learnt that their son would never return to normalcy.

The couple then filed a complaint against the doctors involved and the hospital at the NMC for showing sheer negligence in the treatment of their child. They said that they were put into gross injustice due to negligence on the part of the doctor in the treatment of their child.  

The NMC a few months ago decided to seek clarification from Grande Hospital for sheer negligence shown in the treatment of Rihan. The NMC sought clarifications based on the report submitted by an experts’ team led by Prof Dr Ganesh Rai.

While arguing that seeking clarification and cautioning doctors alone was not enough for the injustice meted out to them, the Neupane couple had filed a writ petition at Patan High Court demanding Rs 20 million in compensation and action against the guilty doctors.

Rihan’s father said the court’s decision has given them relief although nothing can compensate for the damage they had to undergo. “Actually, after filing a case, I was feeling proud that I took this step against them. The damage has already been made and nothing can correct it but I fought so that no one else has to go through this and the whole hospital and medical staff will be aware next time. I'm feeling a bit of relief,” Rihan’s father Sanjeev told Republica.

 
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