Chandigarh, June 16 -- Nearly four years after a routine gallbladder surgery turned into a medical nightmare for a female patient, the District Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission-DF 1 has held a city hospital accountable for deficiency in service. A stent inserted during the procedure had broken, leaving the patient battling complications, pain, countless visits to multiple hospitals and mounting medical bills. Terming it guilty of causing mental agony and physical harassment to the complainant, the commission has directed Mukat Hospital, Sector 34, to pay Rs.25 lakh in compensation, along with Rs.6.37 lakh for the extra expenditure incurred due to additional treatment in Gurugram. The complainant, Susheela, a resident of a city village, had approached the hospital on September 8, 2021, for abdominal pain. Diagnosing her with a gall bladder stone, the doctors at the hospital advised her to get the gall bladder removed immediately, with the assurance of no problem in future. The complainant and her family agreed for the procedure, which involved insertion of a stent in the pancreas. However, during the procedure, the stent broke from the outside and a part of it got stuck in the pancreatic duct. She alleged that the hospital did not reveal this and kept trying to control the deteriorating situation. Ultimately, as the situation got worse, she was informed of the broken stent. But expressing lack of expertise to remove the broken stent or control further damage, the doctors referred her to Medanta Hospital, Gurugram. The complainant submitted that she got admitted to Medanta Hospital thrice, leading to extra expenditure of Rs.6.37 lakh. Further, she had to regularly visit PGIMER and Government Medical College and Hospital in Sector 32, Chandigarh, because of Mukat Hospital's negligence. The complainant alleged that the doctors tried to insert a low quality stent negligently and it broke from outside. To save themselves from investigation, the hospital referred her to Gurugram via a private ambulance. Denying any negligence on its part, the hospital informed the commission that the procedure was conducted after taking informed consent from the patient and her attendant. As per guidelines, a prophylactic plastic PD stent was placed to prevent severe acute pancreatitis. During the procedure, the stent broke, which requires special techniques and equipment for removal, available mostly at research institutions only. The patient's blood circulation was stable and she was fit to be shifted. As her home town was near Gurugram, the decision to shift her to Medanta, Gurugram, was taken mutually as per convenience of her family. The informed consent was obtained from the patient after explaining the need of the procedure, risks involved and expected outcome, the hospital contended. However, the commission observed that the hospital's acts of conducting the procedure despite not being equipped with necessary facilities to attend to the side effects and further shifting the patient to Gurgaon amounted to deficiency in service. Pulling up the hospital for causing the patient mental agony and harassment, the commission directed it pay Rs.25 lakh as compensation and Rs.10,000 as litigation cost, along with Rs.6.37 lakh paid for treatment in Gurugram....