Baidyanath Chakraborty

A city-based gynaecologist duo who have helped many childless couples become parents are challenging the state consumer court’s verdict to compensate a pair who lost a newborn in their care.

Baidyanath Chakraborty, a top infertility expert attached to the Institute of Reproductive Medicine in Salt Lake, and wife Manju have been asked to pay Rs 2.5 lakh to Ekdalia resident Chandi Bhattacharya for “acting negligently in respect of the treatment and care of his wife and newborn baby”.

The doctors have moved the national commission against the verdict.

The incident occurred in March 1997, when Bhattacharya’s wife developed complications in the seventh month of an assisted pregnancy and was admitted to Merryland Nursing Home, where Manju is in charge. The baby was born on March 8 but didn’t survive.

The couple moved the State Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission in 2000, saying their baby might have survived with proper prenatal and neonatal care.

“At the time of delivery there was no neonatologist in the nursing home. Neither did the nursing home have any neonatal facilities. I forced the doctors to contact neonatologist Amit Roy, who took care of the baby and later referred us to Peerless General Hospital. The doctors there tried their best but could not save our child,” Bhattacharya said.

The Bhattacharyas were married in 1989 and twice lost babies before term. They approached Chakraborty after deciding to try for a third pregnancy. According to the petitioner, his wife “felt discomfort” on February 10, 1997, and contacted Chakraborty. He advised her to get admitted to Merryland Nursing Home on CIT Road.

“But Manju Chakraborty was not present when we reached there. Another doctor treated my wife and discharged her after she got relief from the pain. On March 4, my wife started cramping up again and I admitted her to the same nursing home. The premature delivery took place at 10.10pm on March 8 and Manju Chakraborty left the nursing home soon after,” Bhattacharya said.

Chakraborty said he and his wife understood the grief of a couple who had lost their baby but contested the allegations of negligence. “The petitioner has complained about my absence (at Merryland) on the day of the delivery. He has argued that the patient was admitted to the nursing home on my advice and I should have been there. But I was not in the city on that day.”