Gross Negligence: Three Doctors sentenced for two-and-a-half years jail time in Haryana

Jhajjar: In a major setback to three medical practitioners associated with a private hospital in the area after a district court has ordered two and a half years of imprisonment to them, holding them guilty for gross medical negligence that caused the death of a teenager boy.

While the case is yet to uploaded in the offical judicial website, a recent report Hindu reports about their case and their sentencing.

The doctors have been individually sentenced two-year jail on account of death due to medical negligence and two terms of three months each on charges of act endangering life, and breach of contract to attend on a helpless person. However, the sentences will run in a simultaneous manner adds the daily.

The case concerns a teenager, named Rahul (deceased), a resident of  Bahadurgarh who was going for a class on January 21, 2011. In a course of crossing the railway track, he lost balance on the railway track because of the air pressure. As the train was approaching at a very high speed, he faced serious head injuriwa. He was immediately rushed to the Jeevan Jyoti Hospital in the area. The patient was allegedly not attended for hours and the patient died after a few hours.

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Hindu reports that following allegations against the doctors in the case, a medical board was constituted under the chairmanship of N.K. Mundra, the then Deputy Civil Surgeon. In an inquiry report provided by the medical board, it was mentioned that the injured patient had suffered a skull fracture and multiple rib fractures, and a CT scan was necessary for further medical aid.  The medical board, however, stated that no such tests were conducted on the injured since these facilities were not available at the hospital.

The board held the doctors guilty for not referring the patient to a higher institute. "This patient should have been referred to higher institute after the initial management" stated the medical board's report.

This was recently held by the court as an act of Gross Negligence. The Judicial Magistrate (First Class) Vivek Kumar  depending on the medical report provided by the Medical Board stated

The accused did not exercise due care and caution as they could have transferred Rahul to the trauma centre at a government hospital, Bahadurgarh... but the accused were indifferent to the patient's safety and thus committed gross negligence

The court while holding that the guilt of the accused had been proved beyond "shadow of reasonable doubt", awarded them sentence on various grounds including gross negligence, with the total sentence amounting to two and a half years for each doctor.

Hindu adds that the court listened to the doctor's side as well where they put forward the contention of filing late FIR, terming it " not tenable" which the court rejected.

The order issued by the court states, "This court is practical enough to understand that in a country like ours, it is quite difficult for a common man to get an FIR registered against a hospital for committing an act of gross negligence as the police are also reluctant to register the FIR,"

The court issued the judgment of 19 pages where it held the three doctors, Deepak Sharma, Ritesh Kumar and Manish Pal accountable for the death of the injured patient.