ORDER

1. Madras Medical Mission, Appellant herein and Opposite Party before the Tamil Nadu State Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission, Chennai (hereinafter referred to as the State Commission) has filed this first appeal being aggrieved by the order of that Commission which had accepted the complaint of medical negligence and deficiency in service filed against it by S. Jayakumari & others, Respondent No.1 & others herein and original Complainant No.1 & others before the State Commission. 2. Saravana Prabhu (hereinafter referred to as the Patient), aged about 30 years, husband of Respondent No.1 and father of the 2 other Respondents, was admitted in Appellant Hospital for treatment of heart ailment on 05.09.2006. Respondents were assured that on the performance of his open heart surgery, the Patient would regain his normal health. The surgery was performed on 07.09.2006 and the Respondents as also their relatives were informed by the concerned doctors that the surgery was successful and that the Patient would be discharged after a week. However, on 08.09.2006 the condition of the Patient became critical and he was taken to the operation theater where another surgery was performed on him without informing the Respondents and taking their consent. He died at 7.00 p.m. on the same day. Respondents learnt that death occurred due to overdose of anaesthesia and became suspicious when no plausible explanation was forthcoming from the Appellant. Being aggrieved by the death of the Patient following a relatively minor surgery Respondents filed a complaint with the police and a post mortem was conducted, in which it was stated that death was caused due to ntractable Cardiac Failure in post OP case of Atrial Septal Defect Closure Respondents suspected that this document was manipulated to support the Appellant because the words ailure due to post operativeappears to have been scratched out and substituted with the words rtial Septal Defect closure Respondents contended that Appellant had also offered Rs.1,50,000/- to compromise with them but it was not accepted. A complaint was, therefore, filed before the State Commission on grounds of medical negligence and deficiency in service on the part of Appellant and it was requested that Appellant be directed to pay the Respondents a total compensation of Rs.43,25,000/- towards mental agony, loss of consortium and loss of income of the family since the Patient was gainfully employed as a Junior Assistant in the office of Assistant Director, Audit Department at Sivagangai and costs. 3. Appellant on being served filed a written statement denying the allegations of medical negligence on its part. It was stated that the Patient was suffering from Congenital Heart Disease, for which he was referred to Appellant Hospital for the surgery which was performed for ASD closure and is an open heart surgery, after informing the relatives and taking their consent. The surgical procedure was uneventful. However, soon after Patient chest was closed, he developed sudden and profound low blood pressure and low heart rate, which was countered by external cardiac massage and supportive medication.

However, since this conservative treatment was not adequate, the chest had to be reopened for internal cardiac massage and thereafter Patient was put back on a Cardio Pulmonary Bypass for the next two and a half hours to deal with this complication.

Patient was then transferred to the ICU and kept on intensive medication, peritoneal dialysis and other supportive measures. However, in the morning of 08.09.2006 he again suffered an episode of hemodynamic deterioration which necessitated conversion into another complete cardio pulmonary bypass, which was done in the ICU. However, despite this, the Patient could not be saved and he passed away on

08.09.2006. It was contended that from the above facts, it was evident that the Patient expired due to the consequences of intractable cardiac failure following cardio pulmonary bypas