Woman bitten by rat in hosp to get ₹25,000

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K.Kaushik@timesgroup.com

05.01.2022

Madurai: The Madras high court has directed the principal secretary of the health department to pay ₹25,000 as compensation to a woman who was bitten by a rat inside the Government Rajaji Hospital (GRH) in Madurai district in 2014. The court was hearing the petition filed by Muthulakshmi alias Rajam. The petitioner’s son Suresh had suffered grievous injuries in a road accident and was admitted as in-patient on January 19, 2014.

On January 23, 2014, when the petitioner was sleeping near her son’s cot, a rat bit her on her left elbow. She suffered pain and swelling. Since the pain increased, she took treatment as an out-patient.

She then gave a representation to the authorities in February 2014 seeking to prevent rat menace at the hospital. Since there was no response, she had filed the present petition before the HC Madurai bench in 2014, seeking compensation of 2 lakh for the injury suffered by her.

In the counter affidavit, the dean of GRH had stated that though the petitioner claimed that a rat had bitten her on January 23, 2014, she did not approach the medical officer on that very night but took treatment only on January 31, 2014. Justice C V Karthikeyan said that a copy of the medical receipt given to the petitioner which had been enclosed as a document to the petition shows that the nature of treatment given to the petitioner was for rat bite. The petitioner also produced newspaper reports regarding this incident.