Hospital to pay Rs 14L to patient

A local court has asked the Jammu and Kashmir government to pay a compensation of over Rs 14 lakh to a patient who lost his eyesight due to negligence of doctors at a government hospital here.

Principal district judge (Jammu) Jang Bahadur Singh Jamwal on Monday directed the government to pay Rs 14.84 lakh as damages to the victim Dawarka Nath Raina, who had alleged that he lost his vision during treatment due to wrong treatment by doctors at the Chest Diseases Hospital of the GMC here. The court also ordered to pay the amount with an interest at the rate of 7.5 per cent per annum from the date of filing of the suit. Raina, who had sought Rs 16,08,000 as damages, had approached the hospital after some chest complications, where he was prescribed anti-tuberculosis treatment. Since the petitioner became permanently disabled, a sum of around Rs 5 lakh was ordered for the petitioner for keeping an attendant.