It is true that many patients don’t come with clean hands, and some even have hidden agendas. This case however, takes the patient behavior to an all-time low.
Manisha’s right hand had got severely burnt while preparing tea for her guests. She rushed to Dr. Kumar who admitted her to his care center and started the treatment immediately. Surprisingly though, the patient took discharge against medical advise the very next day and approached Dr. Mahesh about a week later. Unfortunately, gangrene developed on Manisha’s toe and four fingers of her left hand and they had to be amputated.
She seemed to be hell-bent on passing that misfortune on to Dr. Kumar as she approached State Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission, Rajasthan. She alleged that the doctor kept her in the hospital for many days and administered a wrong injection that resulted in the spread of gangrene all over her body, which then made the amputation inevitable. She presented a permanent disability certificate issued by Dr. Mahesh to bolster her case.
The only thing that she attracted though, was the ire of the Commission. It was observed that the patient had neither presented any evidence whatsoever to prove that an injection was administered by Dr. Kumar nor that she was remained admitted in the hospital for a long period of time. The Commission was surprised at the patient’s claim that she was treated by Dr. Mahesh at his nursing home and had performed amputation, as no evidence was provided to prove it. It was further observed from Dr. Mahesh’s permanent disability certificate that Manisha’s toe and four fingers of her left hand had developed gangrene and amputated; whereas she claimed that her right hand was severely burnt!
The Commission noticed that the patient was lying and caught her red handed, and stated the following: “Dr. Mahesh has submitted a false affidavit and so also the false certificate hence, it is expedient in the interest of justice that inquiry should be made for the offence.”
Source: Order pronounced by State Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission, West Bengal on 14th September, 2017.