Tamil Nadu - Madurai   

“GH must treat accident victims without insisting on relatives’ presence”

MADURAI: The Madras High Court Bench here on Friday admitted a public interest litigation petition filed by a lawyer seeking a direction to the State Government to issue necessary instructions to all Government Hospitals to treat motor accident victims without insisting on the presence of their relatives.

A Division Bench comprising Justice D. Murugesan and Justice S. Nagamuthu ordered notices to the Health Secretary and the Dean of the Government Rajaji Hospital here returnable by three weeks. The judges appreciated the lawyer for filing the PIL petition with a “laudable objective.”

The petitioner, C. Suresh Kumar (29), said that he happened to read a news item in Tamil dailies on October 26 relating to the death of an insurance agent and two children when their car dashed against a lorry at Nachiarpuram in Sivaganga district. A girl child, aged three, alone survived with grievous injuries on her head, legs and chest.

“She was rushed to the Government Rajaji Hospital (GRH)…The doctors and other staff present in the emergency ward for attending to accident cases refused to give first aid and consequential treatment to save the life of the three-year-old child on the sole ground that there were no relatives present along with her,” the petitioner said.

It took a few hours for the relatives to arrive. Subsequently, the girl was shifted to a private hospital where she breathed her last on October 29. “Her death was due to the negligence on the part of the doctors, nurses and other staff of GRH who were present at a time when she was brought in an emergency situation,” he added.

The lawyer sought for a direction to the Dean of GRH to initiate appropriate action against all those who were responsible for not providing necessary medical care to the victim child at the ‘golden hour’ besides payment of adequate monetary compensation to the her mother.

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