Bizarre medical events have known to happen, and perhaps will continue to. This one however, sets a new benchmark in oddity as you too will see.
Renu was operated for ectopic pregnancy by Dr. Abraham, and believing that the operation was uneventful, she was discharged in a week from the hospital. Little did anyone know the kind of extraordinary situation they were in for.
About a fortnight later, Renu visited Dr. Abraham again with excruciating pain, and an exploratory laparotomy revealed a pair of artery clamps inside her abdomen! Worse for Renu was that a small part of her intestine had turned gangrenous. With the help of Dr. Luther and Dr. Saini, Dr. Abraham promptly performed resection anastomosis of gangrenous part of the small intestine, and of course, removed the clamps.
Renu, however, couldn’t remove this disturbing fact out of her system. She approached the National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission, New Delhi and shockingly alleged Dr. Luther and Dr. Saini of negligently leaving the artery clamps in her abdomen! Even more inexplicable, although coincidental, was the fact that Dr. Abraham died in the meantime in an accident.
Thankfully, the honourable justices came to the right conclusion and untangled the messy situation. The case had the merits of res ipsa loquitur, as the late Dr. Abraham inadvertently left behind two artery clamps in Renu’s abdomen which caused her unnecessary suffering. However, Renu was told upfront that there wasn’t an iota of negligence on part of Dr. Luther and Dr. Saini as they neither performed the ectopic surgery nor left the clamps in her abdomen. On the contrary, both doctors were responsible for her corrective surgery and performed resection of gangrenous bowel and proper anastomosis.
But the hospital was held negligent for Dr. Abraham’s last, albeit, negligent act, and was ordered to pay a hefty amount of six lacs to Renu.
Source: Order pronounced by National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission, New Delhi on 28th April, 2016.