Mr. Reddy, a lawyer by profession, wanted to take treatment for Hernia. He got bewitched by the hospital’s brochure which mentioned that the Hernia surgery would be done through Laparoscopy by Dr. Subrahmanyam, and hence got admitted to the hospital. The surgery was performed through open hernio-graphy with mesh by Dr. Pasha, Dr. Subrahmanyam’s associate.
Lawyer in the patient awoke after the surgery, and Mr. Reddy approached the A.P. State Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission alleging Dr. Subrahmanyam of committing an act of cheating and providing deficient services. He contracted Hydrocele because the inexperienced Dr. Pasha performed an open surgery instead of Laparoscopy, alleged the lawyer. He also alleged that the consent for the open surgery was given by a person unknown to him and hence it cant be considered as an informed consent.
The Commission could see through the lawyer’s argumentative inclination. It was observed that the brochure nowhere mentioned that the hospital would only conduct Laparoscopic surgeries and only Dr. Subrahmanyam would perform them. The Commission did not accept the lawyer’s contention that an unknown person had signed the consent form on his behalf, and specified that this objection was not registered either in his affidavit or his written arguments. Will a lawyer ever fail to register objections before a case begins, questioned the Commission. It was also observed that the lawyer only presented arguments and not any proof with respect to the Hydrocele he contracted, allegedly due to negligent surgery by Dr. Pasha. The nexus between surgery and Hydrocele too was not proved, concluded the Commission and dismissed the lawyer and his baseless arguments.
Source: Order pronounced by the A.P. State Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission, Hyderabad on 9th March, 2016