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Friday, April 26, 2013

MEDICAL NEGLIGENCE CASES ON RISE IN AP

By CJ Nalini Kumar in Hyderabad

Ten years have passed since regional passport officer Srikar Reddy’s wife and unborn baby died  during childbirth due to alleged medical negligence in Hyderabad. The senior IFS officer is still hoping  that one day, justice will be delivered. The AP Medical Council, without even conducting a hearing,  had given a clean chit to the doctor who was involved in the medical botch-up. But Reddy moved the  Medical Council of India, and the licence of the doctor was revoked, but just for three months. 
    
“It is almost impossible to prove a doctor’s negligence. Doctors don’t testify against other doctors and  benefit of doubt is given to the doctor and not the victim,” Reddy, himself a medical doctor, told INN. 
    
“I was in Delhi when tragedy struck and I lost Srilatha, but I am still hopeful and have filed fresh  petitions,” Reddy said. Like Reddy, hundreds of others are wondering when they will get justice, if at  all. 
    
Instances of surgeries going wrong leaving patients disabled, in coma or dead are being increasingly  reported statewide. While police are unable to come to a conclusion on these cases, the AP Medical  Council, a regulatory body, is not enforcing code of ethics on the registered medical practitioners in  the state. 
    
Around 1,500-2,000 such cases are pending in various consumer redressal forums in AP, and relatives  of most victims are spending endless days shuttling between court rooms,hoping thatthe guilty would  be punished. 
    
This year, cases of two women dying due to a botched-up abortion in Nalgonda were reported and  prior to that a lecturer and a homemaker died at two city hospitals after liposuction surgeries went  awry. 
    
Apart from negligence leading to death, cases of wrong diagnosis contributing to worsening of the  disease and cases of carrying out unwanted surgeries are frequent in Hyderabad, experts said. 
    
Lawyer Devender Rao, who has handled around 50 cases of medical negligence shares the case of a  couple that died after a liver transplant surgery due to post operative negligence. 
    
“The wife donated liver to her husband but slipped intocoma within 48 hoursof surgery and her  husband subsequently died. She remained in coma for four years and died subsequently,” said Rao.  Their son filed a case in 2005 and the hearing is still going on at AP State Consumer Disputes  Redressal Commission. 
    
Experts added that it is a herculean task to prove medical negligence cases in India in the absence of  an authorised body like in the developed nations. 
    
Once at the hospital, patients are at the doctor’s mercy, they maintain. Dr Dayakar Reddy, founder  and trustee of Right To Health, said that AP Medical Council is an inactive body that does not exercise  its powers. 
    
“I had lodged a complaint about a decade ago along with few other members against a doctor. The  doctor vanished from AP soon after and when I asked about the status of the case, there is no  response,” rues Reddy. Meanwhile, RPO Srikar Reddy has joined the People For Better Treatment, a  pressure group of medical negligence victims in the state, hoping that a strong forum can help get  many people justice.
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