Tamil Nadu court orders hospital to pay Rs 25 lakh for injecting HIV blood in pregnant lady

In a rather shocking incident, a pregnant woman in Tamil Nadu has got infected with HIV due to the carelessness of a government hospital’s authority. The outcome is that the 24-year-old pregnant woman is ordered to be paid a compensation of Rs 25 lakh by the high court.

Not only this, but the High Court also made an order to the state government to build a 450 sq ft two-bedroom house for the victim.

This was an incident of December 3, 2018 when the victim, hailing from Sattur had gone to Sivakasi for treatment during her pregnancy. But much to her ill-luck, when she was donated blood by a blood donor infected with HIV, she too hot infected with the deadly virus. The incident could come into light only then when the 19-year-old blood donor could discover his disease and informed the hospital authority about the same. By then, the blood has already been injected into the pregnant woman. On the other hand, the upset youth who donated blood committed suicide five days later.

As soon as the controversy came into the notice of the public, Madurai-based activists Appa Samy and Muthu Kumar filed a Public Interest Litigation (PIL). Eventually, the high court ordered the hospital authority to provide compensation to the pregnant woman.

The court order read, “The state government should deposit Rs 10 lakh in the account of the woman and Rs 15 lakh in the name of the newborn and its elder sibling. This is besides the house that should be built for the family of the victim.”

As the issue created quite an uproar, the State Health Department took a further step of treating the pregnant woman at the Madurai Rajaji Government Hospital. The pregnant woman later delivered a baby girl on January 17 and this came as much relief to the parents and their family that the newborn was tested HIV negative.

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