Applicant told to compensate "framed" doctor
Tuesday, June 2, 2009
More than 10 years after an applicatnt alleged against a doctor in court, alleging medical negligence on losing her son, a 97-year-old Mumbai resident not only lost the case but was also ordered to compensate the doctor.
The Maharashtra State Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission, while dismissing a case of negligence against Dr Anil Pinto and the trustees of Holy Family Hospital, recently ordered Irene Pais, the aged mother of the alleged victim, to pay the doctor Rs 5,000 as costs for the legal battle. Alfred Pais, her 67-yearold son, had died within 10 days of surgery to remove his gall bladder in 1997.
The state commission told “at the very outset we would like to mention that reckless and groundless charges of medical negligence against surgeons are on the rise”. Commission president Justice B B Vagyani and members P N Kashalkar and S P Lale said in their order that relatives sometimes make allegations against operating surgeons under a wrong impression. “It is very easy to make these allegations but very difficult to prove the serious charge,” the commission said, referring to the recent Supreme Court verdict which warned police not to go about arresting doctors without proper evidence. The SC had held that a doctor should be issued a notice only after an expert committee makes out a prima facie case of medical negligence, and that a doctor “can’t be blamed simply because the patient did not respond favourably to treatment”. The hearing of the Pais case, which was filed in 1998, was completed last June. Ten months and the recent SC verdict later, the state commission delivered its judgment, holding that Pais had no cogent evidence of negligence by Dr Pinto or the hospital. “She made up her mind on her own notions of medical negligence and twisted facts,” the commission said. Pais had alleged that her son underwent surgery without being put on a course of antibiotics to prevent infection. He had jaundice before the operation, developed an infection soon after surgery, and died within ten days after developing septicaemia.
Courtsey: Times of India
Posts
