A Chinese court on Thursday ordered a drugmaker to pay 55,589
yuan (7,500 U.S. dollars) in compensation to a woman who choked to
death after taking a large pill produced by the company, the first
such case in China.
Yangwenshui Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd., which is based in Shanxi
Province, was ordered to pay the compensation, about 7,500 U.S.
dollars, to the family of Li Qiuhua, who suffocated while
swallowing a large pill as part of treatment for a gynaecological
disorder on January 5.
Li, 34, a citizen of Chengdu, capital of Sichuan Province, was
immediately rushed to a local hospital but died early next morning
after medical treatment failed.
Li's husband claimed that the drugmaker failed to provide
necessary warning information in the instruction about the risk of
taking the medicine.
However, the company blamed the accident on Li, and said she
should have been fully aware of how to take the medicine in a safe
way.
In defence, the drugmaker said that the pill, which is 1.6 cm in
diameter, was made in accordance with the state standard and
instructions were printed in line with relative laws and
regulations and was approved by state pharmaceutical authority.
After more than ten months of investigation and court hearings,
the Wenjiang District People's Court ordered that the drugmaker
should share 20 percent of the responsibility for the accident and
thus should pay the amount of money to the victim.
Both the plaintiff and the defendant were not satisfied by the
verdict and expressed their willingness to appeal to a high
court.
(Xinhua News Agency, December 7, 2007)