New Delhi: A patient in Gujarat, who was admitted to Ahmedabad’s KMG General Hospital, died 4 months after the doctor ‘mistakenly’ removed his left kidney instead of stones. Now, the Gujarat State Consumer Dispute Redressal Commission has ordered the hospital to pay Rs.11.23 lakhs compensation to the kin of the patient.
The consumer court held the hospital directly liable for neglecting the patient care and information by his doctor. The employer is responsible not only for his own acts or commission and omission, but also for the negligence of its employees so long as the act occurs within the course and scope of the employment. This liability is according to the principle of ‘respondent superior’ meaning ‘let the master answer’,” the court said.
The court also ordered the hospital to recompense the patient’s relatives with an interest of 7.5% since 2012.
In the particular case, Devendrabhai Raval, a resident of Vanghroli village in Kheda district consulted Dr Shivubhai Patel of KMG General Hospital difficulty in urination and severe back pain, in 2011. After a few medical tests, he was diagnosed with a 14mm stone in his left kidney. Raval undergo a surgery in the same hospital on September 3, 2011.
Post to the surgery, family of the patient was informed by the operating doctor that the entire left kidney of the patient was removed instead of the stones. “It was done in the ‘best interest’ of the patient”, the family was further told.
Raval, who was supposed to get better after the surgery, succumbed to greater problems in urination. He was admitted to IKDRC Hospital in Ahmedabad, where he died of renal complications on January 2012.
