The Supreme Court yesterday ordered the Public Health Ministry to pay the family of a road accident victim 3.1 million baht in compensation after a medical error at Phrae Provincial Hospital left him disabled.
The Nonthaburi Provincial Court read the Supreme Court ruling, ending an eight-year legal battle seeking justice for 28-year-old Yongyuth Pannina.
The initial lawsuit followed Mr Yongyuth's medical treatment after a road accident in December 2004. Mr Yongyuth, then 19, was sent to the hospital after he was knocked unconscious by a pickup truck while riding his motorcycle on a shopping errand for his mother.
Doctors at the hospital gave him a tracheotomy to help him breathe and placed him in intensive care for 27 days.
In February 2005, the doctor overseeing his case decided to remove the breathing tube after Mr Yongyuth regained consciousness. But the family claimed Mr Yongyuth began to struggle to breathe after the tube was removed.
His mother, Ms Duangnapa, told the court she alerted a nurse to her son's breathing difficulties, only to be told he would be able to breathe normally after a while. His heart then stopped, forcing hospital staff to conduct cardiopulmonary resuscitation.
Ms Duangnapa said her son's brain was severely damaged by the time his heart started beating again. He was left disabled and has had to breathe through a hole in his neck ever since.
"His eyes are open but he does not respond to others," Ms Duangnapa said.
The mother said she had to leave her job in order to take care of her son. Her younger son Thanakorn Pannina, now 25, also left school early to work alongside his father, because care for Mr Yongyuth cost more than 10,000 bath a month.
The hospital offered the family 150,000 baht in damages but Ms Duangnapa rejected the "unfair" compensation.
With help from the Thai Medical Error Network, Ms Duangnapa filed a case with Nonthaburi Provincial Court demanding compensation from the Public Health Ministry in November 2006.
In 2008, the court ordered the ministry to pay 3.9 million baht plus 7.5% interest a year from the date the complaint was launched. The verdict was upheld by the Appeal Court in 2010.
The Supreme Court said in its ruling that although the hospital was found to be negligent, the family was also at fault for not taking the victim to see doctors regularly for physical therapy after the treatment error. Mr Yongyuth's limb atrophy was caused by a lack of nutrition and physical therapy, not the removal of the breathing tube, it said.