Doctor, hospital asked to pay Rs 5 lakh for leaving swab in thigh

INDORE

: District consumer forum has directed a city-based

doctor

and a hospital to pay Rs 5 lakh to a man who had to undergo an amputation due to

gangrene

, which he alleged was caused as a surgical swab was left in his thigh after operation.

The consumer forum bench of judicial member Satyendra Joshi and member Kundan Singh Chouhan in the order dated March 28, also directed two respondents- Dr Anil Baxi and a hospital to pay Rs 10,000 for mental harassment and Rs 1000 against litigation cost.

In January 2015, complainant Shrikant Chanpuriya, a resident of

Panna district

, noticed that his left foot’s second toe was turning black. He went to a hospital in

Satna

and was referred to a private hospital in Indore.

However, he then admitted to another hospital in Indore where Dr Anil Baxi conducted an operation and removed the blackened toe on February 4, 2015. Chanpuriya was informed that he was suffering from gangrene and the toe had to be removed.

He complained that after surgery other toes started blackening and he had to go to a private hospital in Delhi where he underwent another operation on February 11. His remaining toes were cut off and he was informed that there was a surgical swab in his leg. He then underwent a third operation on February 22 at Delhi in which his entire foot was cut off, thus rendering him physically challenged.

Chanpuriya claimed that Dr Baxi had left a cotton swab in his thigh due to which he had developed the infection calling for his foot to be amputated.

However, Dr Baxi said that the surgical swab was not left during the operation at Indore. He also claimed that the scan showed swab was just below the skin and arteries are located much deeper. Hence, blocking of arteries due to surgical cotton swab was medically not possible.

“The patient was already suffering from gangrene when he approached us and my operation note sheet also included check mark on all cotton swabs being taken out. The order has been wrongfully passed against us,” Dr Baxi said.

The forum had also directed for medical records of the case to be examined by surgery department of MGM medical college, who concluded that the operation conducted by Dr Baxi was correct. However, at the hospital in Delhi, a cotton swab was found in the old injury.

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