The Hindu : Tamil Nadu News : Doctor ordered to pay compensation

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Apr 11, 2005

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu

Doctor ordered to pay compensation

By K.T. Sangameswaran

CHENNAI, APRIL 10. Failure to conduct necessary tests before diagnosis will amount to deficiency in service. It will amount to failure in observing the standards of care, the State Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission has said.

Dismissing an appeal filed by a doctor challenging the order of a lower forum, which granted compensation to a person who lost his vision, a Bench said "B-Scan" was an important requirement in the diagnosis of an eye ailment. The doctor proceeded with surgery without performing the tests required to rule out retinal detachment.

The petitioner, S.M. Thomas of Nagercoil, said he consulted S.M. Bejan Singh, Bejan Singh Eye Hospital, Nagercoil, (the opposite party) for a problem in his right eye. He diagnosed it as a bilateral advanced cataract. A surgery was performed in May 1997, and intra-ocular lens implanted. However, he lost his vision.

The district forum ordered payment of Rs.50,000 in compensation, Rs.10,000 for mental agony and Rs.1000 in costs. The doctors went on appeal against this order.

The Commission president, Justice A. Raman, and Members, R. Vanaroja and Pon. Gunasekaran, said the doctor submitted he conducted vision test and intra-ocular pressure test and concluded that the complainant was suffering from advanced cataract and performed the surgery. He admitted that when the patient came again, it was noted that he was suffering from retinal detachment. Based on a referral letter he gave, the complainant consulted a major eye hospital in Madurai.

The Bench said the letter mentioned that the opposite party came to know that the complainant would have been suffering from retinal detachment only after the surgery. The letter established that it failed to conduct the necessary tests. If he was aware that there was a retinal detachment even at the earliest point of time, why did he choose to send the patient to another hospital after the operation and not immediately. The Bench dismissed the appeal with the cost of Rs.250.

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