Fourteen years after a 73-year-old woman died, the State Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission held that the L.H. Hiranandani Hospital at Powai and two doctors there were negligent and deficient in service, in diagnosis and treatment of the deceased.
The commission directed the hospital to pay ₹8 lakh, while the doctors under whose supervision the woman was admitted have been ordered to pay ₹1 lakh each with 9% interest per annum since 2008. All three have also been told to pay ₹25,000 as litigation costs.
In August 2005, the woman was diagnosed with urinary tract infection and admitted to the hospital. She was soon discharged but was advised to get weekly and fortnightly urine cultures taken.
In October 2005, she complained of vomiting blood and was admitted again on November 18. She was referred to various specialists — nephrologists, a urologist, an oncologist and a general physician — based on her history of breast cancer and diabetes mellitus. She was shifted to the Intensive Care Unit on November 24, 2005, and died of multiple organ failure on November 27, 2005.
Her daughters alleged that their mother did not receive proper treatment due to wrong reports, and that there was medical negligence in diagnosing and treating her. They filed a complaint in the Additional District Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum, Mumbai Suburban District, Bandra in 2008 and demanded ₹19 lakh for loss of life due to deficiency in service and medical negligence.
The Additional District Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum dismissed the complaint. Aggrieved by the order, the daughters appealed against the order in the State Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission through advocate Geeta Handa Khanuja.
Justice A.P. Bhangale and Dr. S.K. Kakade declared Dr. L.H. Hiranandani Hospital, Powai, as negligent and deficient in service. The commission said the patient received antibiotics that she was resistant to for more than five days of her nine-day stay in the hospital, proving negligence.
It said that given the patient’s complicated history, the team of doctors should have shown more caution in evaluating her and deciding the course of treatment.
The commission found that there had been medical negligence as there had been a delay in diagnosing pyonephrosis, which led to septicaemia and ultimately, death of the patient. It set aside the order of the Additional Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum, Mumbai, and directed the hospital to pay ₹8 lakh, and the general physician and radiologist to pay ₹1 lakh each.