Patient dies after Doctors leaves instrument inside abdomen during surgery; Consumer court slaps Rs 3.75 lakh compensation

The case concerns a patient, the complainant's wife, who approached the doctor couple for treatment in the year 2012 with complaints of stomach ache. After observing the patient, the doctors suggested that the patient should undergo uterus surgery, and finally, the doctors operated on the patient at their facility in the Mansarovar colony. She was discharged after 6 days.

However, even after her discharge, her condition did not improve and she kept on complaining about abdominal pain. The complainant again sought consultation from the accused doctors however, they referred the patient to a better facility.

Eventually, the patient was taken to St. Stephen's Hospital in Delhi where the doctors ran some tests on the patient and found a piece of a scissor-type instrument inside her abdomen. The doctors there conducted surgery on the patient and removed the instrument from her stomach. Despite the surgery, there was no significant recovery in the patient as she already developed an infection from the instrument. Eventually, the patient passed away on June 18, 2020.

After this, the patient's husband approached the consumer court in Bulandshahr demanding strict action against the doctors and Rs 5 lakh reimbursement for all the expenses which they had to bear during the treatment and for the mental and physical torture which he had to bear due to the untimely death of his wife. He also alleged that the hospital also took Rs 30000 from the complainant for the operation but he was not given a receipt of 20000 rupees.

The CMO of Rajakiya Hospital, Bulandshahr also confirmed that the doctors left a scissor-like instrument inside the patient.

The counsel for the doctors denied all the allegations and stated that the complainant had meticulously hatched a conspiracy to defame the doctors. The doctors stated that they had an argument with the complainant during the patient's stay in the hospital and hence, the complainant wanted to teach the doctor a lesson.

The female doctor also had some personal enmity with the CMO of Rajakiya Hospital and hence, both entered into a conspiracy to lodge a fake case against the doctors in order to defame them, the counsel for the doctor submitted before the bench.

After considering the submission of both the parties, the court found the doctors to be guilty of medical negligence. The commission observed,

The court has ordered the doctor couple to reimburse Rs 1.50 lakh with 6% interest within 45 days and the rest of the Rs 2.20 lakh amount with 6% interest later. The court also instructed the couple to pay Rs 5,000 to the complainant as litigation cost. A copy of the order has also been sent to the National Medical Commission so that they can make a decision regarding the registrations of the doctors accordingly.