New Delhi: The father of a pregnant woman, who died after a negligent doctor treated her for cancer that she did not suffer from, has been awarded compensation of Rs500,000 by the apex consumer court.
The National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission held Chennai-based doctor Kurien Joseph and Joseph Nursing Home in the city guilty of medical negligence and upheld the Tamil Nadu Consumer Commission’s decision that “there was medical negligence on their part in giving wrong and irrational medical treatment to the patient for a disease which she did not have”.
“The rounds of chemotherapy given to her caused untold damage to her and were also responsible for her death,” said commission president Ashok Bhan and member Vineeta Rai recently, dismissing an appeal filed by the doctor and the nursing home.
Joseph and the nursing home were directed to pay by June 2 a sum of Rs500,000 as compensation to victim G Ushanandhini’s father Govindarajan, failing which the amount would carry an interest of 9 percent per annum, together with Rs3,000 as costs, the commission said.
The doctor and the nursing home have the option of challenging the decision in the Supreme Court. Govindarajan, a resident of Jothi Ramalingam Nagar in Perambakkam, sought compensation of Rs1m in his complaint, which stated that the cancer treatment given to his daughter was not correct since she was not suffering from the disease. Ushanandhini was admitted with complaints of stomach pain and menstural discharge despite being pregnant. The commission held the doctor and the nursing home guilty of ignoring a pathologist’s advice to conduct tests for cancer before starting the treatment.
“Despite specific advice of the pathologist to correlate the provisional finding of carcinoma with the clinical picture and conduct biological test in dilutions of the patient, the appellants failed to heed this and did not conduct the required tests nor did they consult an oncologist or get biopsy done, which is the common procedure undertaken in cases of suspected cancer of this nature involving mass in the abdomen and growths,” Bhan said. IANS
