The plaintiff was involved in a motor vehicle accident on 4 September 1983 at about 5.00am. He was admitted to Ipoh General Hospital (hereinafter referred to as GH) at about 5.45am the same day. He sustained a 2 cm lacerated wound over his right eyebrow and a fractured upper third of the right tibia. At (GH, his wound was treated and a full length plaster of paris (POP) was applied to his leg. He remained at GH until 9.45am the next day. The plaintiff apparently dissatisfied with the care he received decided to discharge himself at his own risk (AOR). He then admitted himself to Fatimah Hospital at Ipoh (hereinafter referred to as FH) on the same day (ie, 5 September 1983) at about 12.00 noon. He was attended to by the appellant, Dr Sivananthan. The appellant apparently, immediately split the POP and did an operative procedure called fasciotomy on the plaintiff's leg. On 12 September 1983, he put an internal fixator in the plaintiff's leg to treat the fracture. After that, the plaintiff was treated as an outpatient. However, on 3 June 1984 the plaintiff's leg was amputated below the