New Delhi: Around 40 patients, who suffered physical and mental trauma due to faulty hip implants supplied by a subsidiary of medical giant Johnson and Johnson (J&J), on Wednesday met a government-appointed expert committee to demand “fair and respectable” compensation.
The committee had finalised a formula of compensation in November last year, under which 30 lakh to 1.2 crore had to be given to the patients who received these faulty implants. Around 4,700 patients from different parts of country are estimated to have undergone the hip joint replacement surgery with faulty implants and all of them developed complications post the procedure.
In 2010, the company recalled the implants and announced free “revision surgery” for the patients but the pain, trauma and financial stress still haunts.
Narrating her ordeal, 35-year-old Jyoti Rani who had come to Delhi from Vishakhapatnam for the operation in 2008, said: “I had continuous pain after the operation. They (doctors) told us everything is alright. In 2013, I even asked them if I could get married because I did not want anyone else to suffer because of me and they asked me to go ahead.”
But Rani’s complications kept growing and she suffered a miscarriage. Her blood test showed residual contents of cobalt and chromium which can even lead to cancer. “My husband and I were shocked when the doctors told us to stop planning a family due to the levels of cobalt and chromium in my body and the negative impacts that it could during pregnancy and on the baby later.”
Like Rani, the other victims — many of who were in their early 20s when they underwent surgery — have claimed that the company aggressively promoted the implants a “world-class product”.
Ghaziabad resident Yatin was 25 when he was operated upon in 2005. Both his hip joints were replaced in Mumbai’s Jaslok Hospital. He was told that the implants were variable and even sportspersons are cured with them. “I was told that I will be able to run, swim and use Indian toilets.” However, like in other cases, his complications started soon after and blood showed dangerous cobalt and chromium levels. “My career is finished and I suffer pain every day,” he said.
The central government had appointed an expert committee under Dr Arun Agarwal, former dean of Maulana Azad Medical College, to look into the complaints. In August 2018, the report by Agarwal Committee recommended compensation for the ASR hip implant victims.
Subsequently, in October 2018 a central expert committee headed by Dr RK Arya was convened to start the compensation process. But the removal of compensation clause for the “non-pecuniary damages” in the final draft has been met with serious concerns by the patients. In this clause, there was provision of compensation for “mental and physical shock, pain suffering and trauma”. Several MPs and MLAs have also written to health minister JP Nadda expressing their concern about it.
Distressed patients and family members have formed a Hip Implant Patient Support Group (HIPS) and are demanding that government uphold J&J hip implant victims’ rights over “corporate greed.”
Rajeev Thukral, who represented his wife Mamata in the Wednesday meeting, said, “The company has paid billions of dollars as compensation in countries like US and Australia. They have charged us the same price for the implants. We have suffered so much. Why can’t they pay us compensation in the same way? Why are we being treated in an inferior manner?”
The expert committee also met the company representatives separately. Dr AK Arya, who heads the central expert committee, was not available for a comment.
Comments
0 comment