A Delhi consumer commission has fined the Delhi-based Shree Jeewan hospital Rs 30 lakh as compensation to be paid to a patient for negligence. The hospital staff had left a needle in the uterus of patient Rubina while delivering her third child in 2009.

This resulted in traumatic and painful nights for Rubina till the needle was taken out, but she is left with critical medical complications.

When Rubina moved the consumer court she was awarded compensation, but the defiant hospital moved the state consumer commission, where officers NP Kaushik and Salma Noor upheld the order, while also asking the hospital to pay Rs 30 lakh as compensation.

Rubina has been quoted in the media as saying:  “I cannot stand for long in the kitchen, nor can I climb the stairs. Even now, every month, I spend close to Rs 4,000 on the treatment of my uterus. The infection has been consistent for nine years. I am facing multiple health problems because of this. The hospital is making my husband run from pillar to post for the compensation and is even harassing us. I was operated by an unqualified staff, and now they have stooped so low.”

She is now determined to make a better future for her children. Says she: “I will make my eldest daughter a lawyer so that she can stand for common people like us. I have two daughters and a son. I wanted a family of four children. Monthly doses of medicines is making me weak. My children need me and if something happens to me, who would be responsible?

“That night, I was made to live with a needle in my stomach for two days. I bled so much. Doctors say I can never be a mother again,” she said.

The hospital still remains defiant. It wants to challenge this order as well, while Rubina suffers.

—India Legal Bureau