At Last!! Compensation to OPV Victim in India.

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10 yrs after side effects of polio drop kills infant, court orders govt to pay

Rs 2 lakh to family

(roughly $4,000, " plenty good for an Indian " , huh?)

 

Utkarsh Anand Posted: Jan 05, 2009 at 0222 hrs

http://www.expressindia.com/latest-news/10-yrs-after-side-effects-of-polio-drop-\

kills-infant-court-orders-govt-to-pay-rs-2-lakh-to-family/406758/

 

[ Something is

better than nothing. There is no count of the number killed by the Oral

Polio Vaccine. The number paraylsed is around 80,000 as privately

acknowledged by doctors of the IMA, officially the figure is 65,000

upto 2006. This is a HUGE tragedy that has occurred despite all prior

warnings. Those who opposed and warned were dubbed " anti science " and

" against the interest of the nation " . Now, in light of what has

happened, not only should the children be compensated and those

responsible punished but such misadventures should be prevented at any

cost. The ethical doctors can no longer remain mute witnesses.  The

time has come to understand polio and control it by tackling poverty,

malnutrition, unclean water, sanitation, pesticides and other

neurotoxins that have become part of our lives. - Jagannath]

 

 

New Delhi In a decision aimed

at making public authorities more accountable, a city court has

directed the Delhi government to pay Rs 2 lakh as compensation to the

parents of an infant who died after being administered with Pulse Polio

drops in 1999. The court held that the government was obligated to not only run

public health programmes like Pulse Polio, but was also duty bound to

protect people from the probable side-effects of the vaccine.

 

“The constitutional obligation of the Government to improve

public health is not confined to introducing programmes and

administering medicines but extends to protecting a child under such a

programme from all the consequential effects,†said Additional District

Judge (ADJ) Kamini Lau. Five-month-old Nishu started vomiting after she was

vaccinated in Najafgarh on November 21, 1999.

By November 23, her condition deteriorated despite being given

medicines earlier at the Government Hospital in Zaffarpur. At 1.30 am,

her grandfather Rajpal rushed her to the hospital where, according to

the petition, the staff was found sleeping, and despite repeated

requests, a doctor was not called. Instead, Rajpal was asked to take

the child to the DDU Hospital. Suffering with acute respiratory distress and

diarrhoea, Nishu succumbed on way to the DDU Hospital.

 

 “Authorities cannot shun their legal responsibility in

case a person falls sick or loses life after being administered with

medicines, for not only the improvement of public health but also the

protection of life is the primary duty of the government,†ADJ Lau said.

The court also criticised the condition of government hospitals in the Capital

and asked the government to improve it.

“In any programme of immunisation involving administration of

drops, the possibility of side-effects cannot be ruled out and it is

necessary for the government to gear up its machinery to meet such an

eventuality,†ADJ Lau said. Rajpal led the legal fight on behalf of the

child’s parents, accusing the government of negligence.

 

 

As many as six other children had fallen sick after being given

the polio drops during that period, indicating that something was wrong

with the vaccination programme. Challenging the petition, the government had

said there was

neither any negligence in treating the child nor any fault with the

vaccinations in view of the report submitted by a high-powered

committee formed to look into the death of the child. ADJ Lau, however, observed

that the facts on record spoke volumes about the circumstances that led to the

death of the infant.

Taking strong exception to the manner in which the episode was followed by the

government agencies, the judge said: “Was

it not necessary for the government to have instituted a high-level

probe rather than conducting eyewash investigations on the complaint of

Rajpal? This was necessary to reinforce the faith of the public in

government programmes meant for their welfare.â€

 

 

ADJ Lau further questioned the government’s promise to provide

adequate health measures to everyone and said: “Why under these

circumstances does the government not gear up its machinery to meet

emergencies like the one in the present case?†The court further held that the

programme was conducted in a

“casual†manner as not even the vials of the polio vaccines were

preserved for an in-depth inquiry at later stages.

 

 

 

 

 

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