Hospital punished for failing to diagnose fetus’ heart disease

A hospital in Fuzhou, Jiangxi province was recently ordered to compensate a mother for failing to diagnose the congenital heart disease of her fetus.

Xiaolan (alias for the mother) had received four prenatal ultrasonic examinations at the No 6 Hospital of Fuzhou in 2015, which pointed to no abnormalities in her fetus. She gave birth to a baby boy that July. However, three days after he was born, the boy was diagnosed with a congenital heart defect.

Xiaolan and the hospital did not reach an agreement on how to solve the dispute, and she brought a lawsuit against the facility.

In 2016, a judicial expertise center of the province concluded the hospital should shoulder half the responsibility in failing to discover the abnormality, and graded the baby as Level-7 disabled on a 10-tiered grading system, in which Level-1 represents the most severe disability.

On July 9, the Supreme People’s Court of Jiangxi rendered its verdict, sentencing the hospital to pay 126,000 yuan ($18,000) to Xiaolan for its negligence.