Bombay HC orders BMC to pay Rs. 10 lakh to kin of a man killed in MRI mishap

The Bombay High Court on Tuesday, ordered the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), which runs the BYL Nair Hospital, to pay an interim compensation of Rs. 10 lakh to the family of a man, who died after getting sucked into a Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) machine in January, last year..A Division Bench of Justices Akil Kureshi and S J Kathawalla passed the order after finding that the accident and consequent death of 32-year-old Rajesh Maru was due to the negligence of the authorities. After perusing the evidence on record, the Bench concluded,.“But for the negligence on the part of hospital authorities, the unfortunate incident would not have occurred. Therefore, the authorities could not escape their liability of compensating the family of Maru for the incident.”.While visiting a relative at the hospital, Rajesh Maru was accidentally sucked into the MRI machine leading to his death. In their plea before the High Court, Maru’s family members sought for compensation for his death and called for laying down guidelines to avoid such incidents in future..Ruling in favour of victim’s family, the Bench directed the BMC to pay Rs. 10 lakh to the victim’s family as compensation within six weeks through a five-year fixed deposit in a bank, pending Police investigation and further hearing in the matter..On January 28, 2018, Maru had accompanied his relative for an MRI scanning. They were accompanied by a ward boy and a female attendant up to the MRI section of the hospital. The victim and his relative were asked to remove all metallic objects to avoid any incident due to the strong magnetic waves emitted by MRI machine..It was also submitted by the petitioner that the ward boy asked Maru to carry an oxygen cylinder meant for his relative into the scanning room. According to the petitioner, the ward boy had assured the victim that there was no risk in carrying the cylinder inside since the MRI machine would be switched off. However, the machine had not been switched off and Maru got pulled into the MRI machine after he entered MRI testing room with the oxygen cylinder. As a result, Maru eventually succumbed to fatal injuries sustained during the accident..While the hospital authorities did not confirm before Court if the ward boy had given any assurance of the MRI machine being switched off, an internal inquiry had named the ward boy and the female attendant guilty of negligence. Earlier, the Court had directed the hospital to present in a sealed cover, a report of the internal inquiry which may have been undertaken by the Civic Body..Last month, Senior advocate Joaquim Reis, appearing for the respondent hospital had sought time to file a response on the plea. He opposed the plea filed by the family of the victim, submitting that the FIR registered in the matter and statements of witnesses did not establish the reason why the victim was sucked into the machine..The Court remarked that the inquiry so far has confirmed that the deceased had entered the scanning room with permission and that he had been handed over the oxygen cylinder by the ward boy. Moreover, the Court noted that the authorities came to the conclusion that its staff was negligent in discharging their duties..“Therefore, in view to avoid such incidents in future, the BMC has to pay interim compensation,” the Court ruled..Senior Counsel Darius Khambatta and advocates Phiroze Mehta, R S Bidkar and Ayush Jain instructed by Harini & Co. had appeared for the petitioners during earlier hearings.