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These two Civil Appeals are preferred against the judgment of National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission (hereinafter referred to as the ‘NCDRC’) rendering a finding of medical negligence against the State of Tamil Nadu, its Government Hospital and two Government Doctors and awarding a sum of Rs.5,00,000/- to V. Krishnakumar. Civil Appeal No. 8065 of 2009 is preferred by V. Krishnakumar for enhancement of the amount of compensation. Civil Appeal No. 5402 of 2010 is preferred by the State of Tamil Nadu and another against the judgment of the NCDRC. As facts of both the appeals are same, we are disposing the appeals by this common judgment.

10. The NCDRC has relied on the report dated 21.8.2007 of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi (hereinafter referred to as ‘AIIMS’). In pursuance of the order of the NCDRC, a medical board was constituted by AIIMS consisting of five members, of which, four are ophthalmological specialists. The board has given the following opinion:-

"A premature infant is not born with Retinopathy of Prematurity (ROP), the retina though immature is normal for this age. The ROP usually starts developing 2-4 weeks after birth when it is mandatory to do the first screening of the child. The current guidelines are to examine and screen the babies with birth weight<1500g and <32 weeks gestational age, starting at 31 weeks post-conceptional age (PAC) or 4 weeks after birth whichever is later. Around a decade ago, the guidelines in general were the same and the premature babies were first examined at 31-33 weeks post-conceptional age or 2-6 weeks after birth.

12. Having given our anxious consideration to the matter, we find that no fault can be found with the findings of the NCDRC which has given an unequivocal finding that at no stage, the appellant was warned or told about the possibility of occurrence of ROP by the respondents even though it was their duty to do so. Neither did they explain anywhere in their affidavit that they warned of the possibility of the occurrence of ROP knowing fully well that the chances of such occurrence existed and that this constituted a gross deficiency in service, nor did they refer to a paediatric ophthalmologist. Further it may be noted that Respondent Nos. 3 & 4 have not appealed to this Court against the judgment of the NCDRC and have thus accepted the finding of medical negligence against them. Deficiency in Service

21. We accordingly direct that the above amount i.e. Rs.42,87,921/- shall be paid by the Respondent Nos.1 to 4. In addition, interest at the rate of 6% p.a. shall be paid to the appellant from the date of filing of the petition before the NCDRC till the date of payment.

Future Medical Expenses

22. Going by the uncontroverted statement of expenditure for the period from the final verdict of the NCDRC to December, 2013, the monthly expenditure is stated to be Rs. 13,554/-, resulting in an annual expenditure of Rs. 1,62,648/-. Having perused the various heads of expenditure very carefully, we observe that the medical costs for Sharanya’s treatment will not remain static, but are likely to rise substantially in the future years. Sharanya’s present age is about 18 ½ years. If her life expectancy is taken to be about 70 years, for the next 51 years, the amount of expenditure, at the same rate will work out to Rs. 82,95,048/-. It is therefore imperative that we account for inflation to ensure that the present value of compensation awarded for future medical costs is not unduly diluted, for no fault of the victim of negligence. The impact of inflation affects us all. The value of today’s rupee should be determined in the future. For instance, a sum of Rs. 100 today, in fifteen years, given a modest 3% inflation rate, would be worth only Rs.64.13. In Wells v. Wells[3] the House of Lords observed that the purpose of awarding a lump sum for damages for the costs of future care and loss of future earnings was to put the plaintiff in the same financial position as if the injury had not occurred, and consequently the courts had the difficult task of ensuring that the award maintained its value in real terms, despite the effect of inflation.