Neurosurgeon Sends Rs 10 crore Defamation Notice to Patients attendant for Facebook Posts

“Even on the day after Biswas posted all this, I was with his son, discussing the patient’s condition.” the doctor said

Kolkata: Retaliating against the alleged defamatory posts made against him on the social networking sites, a neurosurgeon in Kolkata has sent a legal notice to the husband of a patient. The doctor in the notice has clearly asked to the attendant to either retract the post and issue of public apology or he will proceed with civil proceedings to claim damages to the tune of Rs 10 crore for the loss of goodwill and reputation due to such defamation.

It is reported that Dr Sujoy Sanyal, Senior Consultant Neurosurgeon-Cumneurointerventionist at Rabindranath Tagore International Institute of Cardiac Sciences (RTIICS) has sent a legal notice to, Nabendu Biswas, an advocate, whose wife, Bhanumati, who died at the hospital on August 11. Claiming Rs 10 crore in damages, the doctor has given seven days to Biswas to publish apologies in English, Hindi and Bengali dailies, failing which he would take further legal action.

The notice narrated the case of patient Bhanumati had undergone a kidney transplant at RTIICS in 2017. In June this year, she returned to the hospital with complaints of fever. After consulting a nephrologist, Biswas was told that she had developed meningitis and she was referred to Dr Sanyal. Accordingly, the patient consulted Dr Sanyal.

In his alleged medical negligence complaints on his Facebook and WhatsApp accounts, the patient's husband alleged that Dr Sanyal told him that a ‘VP shunt’ procedure would be required to save his wife’s life. She underwent the surgery on July 26 but never recovered. He accused the doctors of not being able to diagnose his wife’s ailment even after several weeks.

In response to these posts "defaming" the doctor, Dr Sanyal sent a legal notice on August 9, responding in detail to the accusations made by the attendant. The notice clearly pointed out that the patient was referred to the doctor on July 24 after being put on the ventilator in the CCU.

In his notice, he reiterated that he met Biswas and his son and explained to them that the patient’s life could be saved by using a ‘shunt’ to create an alternate route for the water accumulated in the brain to the abdominal cavity.

The doctor clarified that he had explained to them that the patient ran the risk of sepsis, prolonged ventilation and even death as she was on immunosuppressants since the kidney transplant and that the ultimate prognosis would also depend on whether the meningitis was medically treatable. They were also informed that there was the risk of death or the shunt getting blocked or infected. Only after that, did the patient’s son sign the consent form.

The patient recovered consciousness and was taken off the ventilator on July 27 and remained in that condition till July 29. On this, the doctor pointed out, “You (biswas) didn’t mention in his posts about being counseled by the doctor or that his wife regained consciousness. Neither did he mention that tests on the brain water established tuberculosis meningitis, which had nothing to do with the ‘VP shunt’ procedure done.”

Dr Sanyal further added, “Biswas did not mention in his posts that X-rays established that his wife had developed severe chest infections on July 30 or that both he and his son were counseled by several doctors of the hospital that his wife’s critical condition was due to severe chest infection and sepsis.”

Speaking to TOI, the doctor informed, “Even on the day after Biswas posted all this, I was with his son, discussing the patient’s condition.”

The defamation notice went on the add the credentials of the doctors including the fact that he secured his Mch from AIIMS and has been the recipient of numerous national and international accolades in the field of neurosurgery.

The notice then went on to call upon the attendant to withdraw the defamatory statements published by him on facebook and circulated on Whatsapp as well as to issue apology in a leading English and Bengali and Hindi newspaper to the doctor, within 7 days, failure of which would lead the doctor to resort to legal recourse.

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