Doctor to pay Rs 2 lakh for damaging patient's kidney

BATHINDA: The National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission has directed Dr G S Nagpal to compensate a patient to the tune of Rs 2 lakh for damaging his kidney.
The commission has also asked the doctor to refund Rs 10,000 charged for the operation.
The patient, Gurdit Singh, a resident of Dhilwan Kalan village in Faridkotdistrict, was admitted at a hospital here in 1996 for the treatment of kidney problem.
The doctor had charged Rs 10,000 at the time of admission for which a receipt was issued. An amount of Rs 80,000 was paid to the doctor for removal of stone in the left kidney.
The lithotripsy for removal of stone was performed by Nagpal on April 15, 1996. It was alleged during the operation, the left kidney was severely damaged due to negligence of the doctor, as he was an orthopaedic and not qualified for performing lithotripsy.
The patient had filed a complaint before the State Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission, Punjab, and the state commission holding the doctor guilty of deficiency in service, had awarded a compensation of Rs 50,000 to the complainant. The doctor filed an appeal before the national commission against the decision of the state commission.
The complainant also filed an appeal for increasing the compensation. The national commission, while dismissing the doctor’s appeal, held him guilty of gross negligence in performing the operation as he was not qualified for it.
"The tendency to perform procedures like lithotripsy by unqualified doctors need to be discouraged and curbed with a heavy hand," the commission observed. On the other hand the national commission enhanced the amount of compensation from Rs 50,000 to Rs 2,00,000 and ordered the doctor to pay the amount within a month.
Notably, Gurdit Singh’s kidney removal case, the Ludhiana police had on Friday registered a criminal case against Dr Baldev Singh Aulakh and Dr Navdeep Singh Khaira, president of Punjab Nephrology Society under Section 18, 19 of Transplantation of Human Organs Act, 1994 and 307, 420, IPC. Gurdit Singh had complained to chief minister Amarinder Singh in February this year and had handed over the complaint to Kidney Scandal Inquiry Committee.
After an inquiry by the committee, the doctors were found guilt of removing the kidney in an illegal manner.