The complainant moved the consumer court in 2011 against the lab and the Nashik-based hospital for deficiency of service and sought a compensation of Rs 20 lakh. During the hearings, SRL had challenged the jurisdiction of the said forum to hear the case. (Representational Image)The District Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum, Nashik, has held a diagnostic lab guilty of erroneously concluding that a woman had cancer and ordered it to pay a compensation of Rs 7 lakh.
Complainant Ragini Aher, also a doctor by profession, had to undergo chemotherapy and later came to know that she had been misdiagnosed by the Super Religare Laboratories (SRL) after she went to Tata Memorial Hospital for a second opinion. Aher said in 2009 she had frequent bouts of fever and stomach ache, following which she had approached Doctors at Curie Manavata Cancer Centre in Nashik.
The doctors recommended her to undergo a biopsy. In November 2009, a biopsy was conducted on her. The test was conducted by SRL, which in its report said the patient suffered from Hodgkins Lymphoma, a cancer of lymphatic system. Subsequently, Aher underwent chemotherapy for two months in 2009. As her health still did not improve, she approached Tata Memorial Hospital in December 2009. In its reports, the hospital said there was conclusive evidence to say she suffered from Hodgkins Lymphoma. The complainant subsequently went for a third opinion at K L Raheja Hospital, which said she did not suffer from cancer.
The complainant moved the consumer court in 2011 against the lab and the Nashik-based hospital for deficiency of service and sought a compensation of Rs 20 lakh. During the hearings, SRL had challenged the jurisdiction of the said forum to hear the case.
The forum, headed by Milind Sonawane, however, said the tests done by SRL and the other two hospitals were conducted using the same biopsy block.
“We believe that there is no truth in the claim that the chemotherapy that the complainant underwent during this period cured her from cancer, and that is why later the test results came negative,” the forum said in its judgment. The forum added that it agreed that the lab had shown deficiency in services and ordered the lab to pay Rs 7 lakh to the complainant. The forum, however, chose not to fine the hospital.
