Horseshoe kidney disorder: HC directs AIIMS to import injection

New Delhi: The Delhi High Court has asked the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) hospital to urgently import an injection required for treating a four-year-old child suffering from horseshoe kidney, a condition in which the kidneys are fused together at the lower end and form a "U" shape before birth.

The order came on a PIL registered based on an email received by the court's registrar general with a complaint by the child's mother that the injection — named Dexell — was not available in the country. She said in the complaint that the injection was urgently required for her son's treatment. She said she was referred to the ESIC dispensary in Nand Nagri by AIIMS to obtain the injection as the child's father is a beneficiary of the Employees' State Insurance Corporation scheme. However, the dispensary referred her back to AIIMS, stating the injection could not be purchased as it was not available in the country.

The ESIC informed the court that the only reason why the purchase of the injection was refused was its non-availability in India. It also told the court there's no substitute available for it in the India pharmacopoeia, the official publication containing a list of medicinal drugs with their effects and directions for their use.

The ESIC counsel urged the bench of Chief Justice Satish Chandra Sharma and Justice Sachin Datta to direct AIIMS to procure the injection and said ESIC will reimburse the entire cost incurred on its procurement. The counsel for the hospital agreed to the proposal. "Accordingly, AIIMS Hospital is directed to take urgent steps to procure/import the injection that is required for treatment of the child/patient and administer the same without delay. The AIIMS Hospital shall communicate the details of the expenditure/charges in this regard to ESIC D(M)D Office which shall reimburse the same to AIIMS Hospital," the high court said.