A petition filed by M Ganesan of Vadavur, Thanjavur district, came up for hearing before Justice N Anand Venkatesh.

The petitioner stated that after having abdominal pain on May 25, his wife was taken to Vadavur Primary Health Centre. My wife was then referred to Thanjavur GH, where she gave birth to a baby girl. Both the mother and the infant continued to be treated as inpatients in the hospital for improvement of their health and other issues. A venflon was placed on the child’s left hand and wrapped with surgical tape to inject fluids. On June 7, at the paediatric surgical unit, ward -134, Sheela, the staff nurse on duty, started cutting the venflon with a pair of scissors to remove it from the child’s left hand. But she cut the thumb of the infant due to negligence.

Moreover, the doctors stitched the thumb with the baby’s hand on June 9 and the petitioner was informed that they were not confident how the stitched finger would function in future.

On June 11, the petitioner sought authorities concerned to take immediate steps to pay a fair and reasonable compensation for the nurse’s negligence that cost the child’s left thumb and caused unbearable pain.

The petitioner also demanded the affected child to transfer from Thanjavur GH to any other private multi-specialty hospital in Tamil Nadu until injuries in her hand gets completely healed and provide rehabilitation as the family is poverty stricken. But no positive action has been taken till now.

The petitioner also sought the court to direct the state to appoint more staff nurses at Thanjavur GH, especially in pediatric, maternity and emergency wards. The judge, after hearing the case, directed to pay an interim compensation of Rs 75,000 within a period of four weeks and also to provide required surgical treatment for the child in a specialty hospital. Further, the High Court Bench directed the respondents, including principal and Health secretaries and Dean of the GH to file counter affidavit, before adjourning the case to July 26.