Medical professionals must accurately diagnose and treat patients; negligence arises from failure to recognize serious conditions leading to harm or death.

A. Brief Facts Of Plaintiffs' Claim

[1] The Plaintiffs are suing on behalf of the estate of Suman Rampal, the deceased ("hereinafter referred as Suman"). 1st Plaintiff is the husband and the 2nd Plaintiff is the sister of the deceased.

[2] On 13 May 2019 at about 4.10 am at the A&E of the 1st Defendant's hospital, Suman complained of severe abdominal pain over the last 2 days. The pain was getting worst and was mostly felt on the right flank of her abdomen. She was seen by the 2nd Defendant. When Suman was seen and treated by 2nd Defendant, she gave a good description of her condition and gave a complete history of her illness. Suman told the 2nd Defendant of her 'Urinary Tract Infection' (UTI) which she had suffered some weeks earlier but which had resolved. She also gave a history of receiving antibiotics for the UTI and produced the blood and urine investigation results undertaken at the clinic from which she had received treatment. She also described the type of pain she was experiencing and was able to distinguish her current pain to the pain she had experienced when she had the UTI. She described the current pain to be one sided and was "endometriotic colic" in nature which had pointed to a gynaecological cause.

[3] Suman also gave a history of an 8-cm ovarian cyst. The 2nd Defendant undertook a Trans-abdominal ultrasound scan and noted "a right ovarian mass? Cyst size 8 cm". The 8 cm described by 2nd Defendant was a wrong finding. The cyst had grown bigger and was in fact "11.2 cm x 8cm". The blood investigations ordered by 2nd Defendant revealed extremely high white blood count. The urine test results revealed the findings of urea at 19.8 and nitrite to be negative. The 2nd Defendant was not aware that in a patient like Suman who has been on long term steroid therapy, her normal white blood count would be much lower than that of the general population. Therefore, the finding of 15.6 for white blood count which Suman had was a sign of a serious infection.

[4] The 2nd Defendant was not aware that a patient like Suman, will also not show commons signs like fever and tachycardia (increased heartbeats) in the presence of an infection. This is because the long term steroid therapy would have suppressed such inflammatory responses. The laboratory test results, the trans-abdominal ultrasound scan finding, the specific complaints of pain and the history of previous ovarian cyst with abscess all pointed towards only one possible cause, namely, that Suman was suffering from an acute gynaecological problem. Most likely a ruptured ovarian cyst.

[5] The 2nd Defendant then contacted the urologist on call, Dr Amit Kumar Sharma ("Dr Amit") for his opinion. After hearing 2nd Defendant's description including his finding over the ovarian cyst, Dr Amit apparently told him to seek the opinion of their nephrologist on call. This, the Plaintiffs claimed the 2nd Defendant was going on the wrong diagnosis of recurrent UTI, advised Suman to go and see her regular nephrologist at PPUKM sometime later. He gave her a referral letter which showed clearly that the 2nd Defendant did not appreciate at all the imminent danger that lay ahead for Suman.

[6] The 2nd Defendant told Suman and her husband that they could go to PPUKM sometime later that day as her condition was not urgent. She was discharged at 6.30 am. Shortly after reaching home, Suman started experiencing pain and she began having difficulty in breathing. She was ru