ORDER

Dr. S.M. Kantikar, Presiding Member “Every death in an institutionalized environment of a hospital does not necessarily amount to medical negligence on a hypothetical assumption of lack of due medical care.”[ IV (2022) CPJ 7 (SC)]

The Present Complaint has been filed under Section 21 (Read with Section 24-A) of the Consumer Protection Act, 1986 (for short “the Act”) by Dr. Manik Chandra Khan & Gouranga Maji (hereinafter referred to as the ‘Complainants’) against M/s. Extent Medical and Surgical Centre & its 5 Doctors (hereinafter to be referred as the ‘Opposite Parties’) for alleged medical negligence causing death of daughter of the Complainant No.1.

The Complaint:

2. Ms. Sanchita Khan (since deceased herein referred to as a “Patient”) was suffering from fever and on 26.10.2015 her father took her to Dr. Amit Saha (OP-1) at Extent Medical & Surgical Centre (OP-6) at Chandannagar. The OP-1 prescribed medicines and few lab investigations. The next day (27.10.2015), at 11 am, the patient’s fever spiked to 1050 F and it decreased around 2 pm. She had loose motion also which, stated by OP-1, was due to side effect of Moxclav (Amoxicillin). He admitted her in OP-6 hospital on 28.10.2015. It was alleged that the OP-1 visited the patient on the same day, but the time of visit was not specified. On 29.10.2015, the patient developed urticarial rash due to side effect of medicines and doctors changed the medicines, the Inj. Pause was stopped, and Inj. Corts was started. At 10.25 am, the OP-1 visited the patient, he did not discontinue Inj. Levosulpiride, as it was Sulphur-containing drug, and the patient had a known allergy to Sulpha drugs as recorded in the medical history. In the evening at 7.40 pm, OP-1 visited again but he did not inform the family of the patient’s about her serious condition. Thereafter, on next day 30.10.2015, in the evening, the Complainant No.1 found that his daughter suffered respiratory distress, therefore he started examining the patient, but the nurse came and rashly snatched stethoscope from his hand and called OP-1. The patient’s condition further deteriorated with shortness of breath and alleged that she was shifted to High Dependency Unit (HDU) instead of ICU and put on Oxygen by CPAP machine. On next day 31.10.2015, the OP-1 visited at 9.30 am, there was no improvement, but the serious condition was not informed to her relatives. On next day i.e. 01.11.2015, the patient’s condition worsened, and she was shifted to the High Dependency Unit (HDU) and placed on Oxygen by CPAP machine. The OP-1 did not visit the patient for more than 24 hours until the patient’s death at 8.30 am. It was alleged that if ICU/ITU facility was not available at OP-6 hospital, the OP-1 should have referred the patient to another hospital. Thus, entirely it amounts to gross and willful negligence of OP-1 towards the serious patient.

3. The Complainants raised several other allegations like lack of informed consent, false qualification of the OP-1, manipulation of medical records, and mismanagement of the patient’s care, not done proper investigations, failure to correct anemia and wrong medication etc. The quality of the chest X-ray was poor, and the ECG was conducted just before the patient’s death, thus there was lack of proper monitoring and care. The Complainant No. 1 was not aware of that the OP-1 was not ‘Physician’. He came to know from IMA, Chandannagar that OP-1 was MD in Preventive & Social medicine (P& SM) and not a MD General medicine, but to mislead the patients, his prescription was printed as ‘MD (Cal)’. In that case OP-1 should not have treated the patient under his care, but should have referred her to the Physician. The cause of death, was recorded as respiratory failure, community-acquired pneumonia, and bronchial asthma. Being aggrieved the Complainants filed this complaint and prayed Compensation amounting to Rs.4,69,81,448/- under different heads.

4. The Opposite Parties filed their written versions and