The District Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum (DCDRF), Chennai (North), has asked a hospital and a medical consultant to compensate a patient who was discharged after he was wrongly diagnosed with HIV.
R. Mohandoss, president of the DCDRF, Chennai (North), directed Sooriya Hospital in Saligramam, and neurosurgeon K. Subramanian to pay Rs. 50,000 each to the complainant, E. Chankrasekar of Mangadu, with 9 per cent interest per annum from June 3, 2004 till date of payment. They have also been asked to pay Rs. 10,000 towards costs.
The complainant was referred to K. Subramanian for a surgery and admitted to Sooriya Hospital on May 8, 2004. On May 10, 2004, the doctor informed the complainant that according to tests reports he was HIV positive. The doctor then discharged him without performing the surgery.
Mr. Chankrasekar then got himself tested at a private lab in Tambaram as well as Government Hospital for Thoracic Medicine, and found that he was not infected.
The forum stated that the hospital and doctor had discharged the complainant without treating him for cervical spondylitis due to the stigma of HIV infection, and pointed out that such an act would have caused mental agony and trauma to the complainant.
