While the interim compensation of Rs. 3 lakh awarded to them for contracting Hepatitis C during dialysis at Government Stanley Hospital is a good step, the 14 patients are more worried about when the kidney transplants will take place.
“We are happy about the compensation, but we just want the transplants to take place now at the earliest, in the best possible manner, so that we can get back to our lives. We have all spent several months more than we anticipated here,” said Thilagavathi, wife of R. Karthikeyan, who was one of the 16 patients diagnosed with Hepatitis C.
Of the 16, two have died, the patients said. They had been awaiting kidney transplants at the hospital when they contracted Hepatitis C from a dialysis machine at the hospital last August.
Almost 10 months later, on Monday, State Health Secretary J. Radhakrishnan, who appeared before the Madras High Court, stated that the government had decided to disburse the interim compensation within a week to the families of the 16 patients.
When a public interest litigation petition came up for hearing before the First Bench comprising Chief Justice S.K. Kaul and Justice T.S. Sivagnanam, he agreed to put the recommendations of the expert committee in the public domain, inviting any suggestions which may then be examined by the committee. “We clarify that the matter to be examined would be qua infection protection programme, not necessarily confined to only nephrology, in order to improve the public health care system,” the Bench said.
The authorities would also examine the enhancement of interim compensation to two more persons who are stated to have passed away.
After contracting Hepatitis C last August, the patients have been seemingly on an endless wait
