DHAKA: The High Court has ordered authorities concerned to pay Tk 9 lakh as compensation to a woman, who was left with gauge in her body for over three months after a C-section delivery at a clinic in Patuakhali.

An HC bench comprising Justice Salma Masud Chowdhury and Justice AKM Zahirul Huq passed the order on Wednesday (Dec 13). 

The court ordered the clinic, in where the surgery was performed, to pay Tk 4 lakh and the responsible doctor to pay Tk 5 lakh to the victim with in January 15 and submit a report in court. The court also fixed Feb 28 for further order in the case.  

Earlier on Dec 11, doctor Arjun Chakrabarty alias Rajan Das, who performed the surgery and later turned out to be a fake doctor, surrendered before the High Court. The HC then ordered to hand him over to Shahbag police station.

On Nov 6, The High court issued arrest warrant against Arjun after his medical license had proven forged. 

In July 22, a report on the surgical blunder was published in a national daily newspaper. On the next day, Supreme Court lawyer Md Shahidullah brought the matter to court’s attention. 

According to the news report, “Doctors of Barisal Sher-e-Bangla Medical College Hospital removed gauzes from one Maksuda Begum’s abdomen three and a half months after a C-section delivery. The woman was kept in the Intensive Care Unit as her intestines suffered severe injuries due to the gauze left in there for more than three months.” 

The victim Maksuda Begum, 25, wife of one Md Rasel Sardar of Bilbilas village of Baufal upazila in Patuakhali, gave birth to a baby girl after a C-section back in March. However, the doctor who performed the surgery stitched her abdomen leaving gauze inside. She suffered abdominal pain, fever later and taken to Sher-e-Bangla Medical College Hospital. 

On July 23, The HC issued a rule in this regard.

BDST: 1630 HRS, DEC 13, 2017
AP