Anuradha Saha case: Does SC judgment bring hope?

Nobody wants India to go the way of the United States where lawsuits have helped push up the cost of medical insurance to make healthcare itself unaffordable for millions. But the record damages imposed on the AMRI hospital in Kolkata by the Supreme Court in a 210-page judgement on Thursday at least gives some hope that we are not at the mercy of a medical establishment that both plays God and Shylock, trying to extract every pound of flesh from its patients but remaining completely unaccountable at the same time. The Court ordered compensation of Rs 5.96 crore for the death of Anuradha Saha for medical negligence. The amount itself made huge news because it crosses 11 crore once simple interest is taken into account. It’s no slap on the wrist. The Court made it clear that it was sending out a message that was not about Anuradha Saha alone. “We therefore hope and trust that this decision acts as a deterrent and a reminder,” it said. Anuradha Saha who lived in Ohio was visiting Kolkata with her husband when she developed skin rashes and fever. A well-known physician Dr. Sukumar Mukherjee prescribed a drug for her and she was later admitted to the AMRI hospital under the care of three other physicians. Soon her skin started to peel off and she is diagnosed with a life-threatening condition caused by a drug reaction. She was airlifted to Breach Candy hospital in Mumbai where she died. Her husband lodged a criminal case accusing the doctors of negligence. [caption id=“attachment_1193841” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Kunal Saha and his late wife Anuradha. IBN Live.[/caption] That case wound its way through various courts before landing up at the Supreme Court and this landmark judgement. It sounds like a rare case of the consumer triumphing over the system and a cause for celebration. Yet it’s also a moment for reflection on many counts. First, Anuradha Saha died in 1998. It has taken 15 years for this case to finally reach this point. One of the doctors named in the case Abani Roychowdhury died in 2011. Another doctor is now himself ill and bed-ridden. Few would have the energy and doggedness to keep pursuing justice with the zeal her husband, Kunal Saha, demonstrated. Along the way there were many setbacks which could have made him give up. The Bengal Medical Council, for example, rebuffed him. Saha is himself a doctor and understood more about what was happening than most lay persons. He argued the case himself several times. Second, the amount sounds impressive but that’s largely because the victim was an NRI. The court calculated her loss of income in dollars and converted it to rupees holding the value of the Indian currency as Rs 55 to the dollar. Had Anuradha Saha been an Indian living in India or a housewife, the damages would probably not have been so high. Third, the cost of these 15 years on Kunal Saha has been huge. This is not just about his wife not coming back. He told The Telegraph he spent Rs 6-8 crore fighting the case. “I had to spend months in India,” he said often at the risk of losing his job in the US. In 2005, Ohio University rejected his tenure because of his long absences. In 2011 his home loan was foreclosed and he filed for bankruptcy. Fourth, the doctors remain largely unrepentant. The court minced no words denouncing the doctors. It expressed its shock that a doctor as “renowned and revered” as Dr. Sukumar Mukherjee could have shown such disrespect to his profession and attempted to pass the buck to other doctors. But Dr. Mukherjee told The Telegraph he was just relieved he would actually get back money. An earlier National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission ruling had imposed a Rs 40.4 lakh fine on him. The Supreme Court verdict asks him personally to pay Rs 10 lakh. “Now I am supposed to get back three-fourth the amount,” Dr. Mukherjee said. The Telegraph notes the infamy did not affect his practice too much. He remains a busy consultant and is on the medical boards of top hospitals. Fifth, the AMRI hospital on which this fine has been imposed is the same hospital where the devastating fire happened in 2011 killing 92 people. That case is meandering through the court system. It has taken 22 months for a judicial commission to begin recording the statements of the victims’ family members. Eight of AMRI’s directors were arrested after the chief minister said noone would be spared. All are out on bail. Hearings have been pushed back multiple times while the directors resume their busy schedules. Relatives take leave from office to come to court hearings to find most of the accused have not turned up, sometimes because they are on trips abroad. “It was not about the money,” Kunal Saha told the Times of India. “I had carried on this long struggle to change the prevailing system in India which treats patients like guinea pigs. … There have been cases in the past where doctors had to shell out Rs 1-2 lakh as compensation, but it couldn’t make any difference. It’s less than the price of a second-hand car… But this judgement is a strong warning. It will help curb reckless use of medicines and wrong treatment.” Whether it is able to do so for ordinary Indians of limited means who don’t have an advocate with the tenacity, knowledge and means Dr. Kunal Saha brought to his case remains to be seen. After all Dr. Sukumar Mukherjee is not only still a busy doctor. He was invited by the Mamata Banerjee government to be an advisor to West Bengal’s health ministry. A newspaper report said the state government was getting ready to give the AMRI hospital its licence back subject to “minor fire-safety compliances” as well. With reference to the slow pace of the AMRI fire case, even the Calcutta High Court said “it is not easy to get things done against the rich." Will this fine change that reality?