He was in pain for months — a growing mass near his spine.
Doctors suspected a tumour. He was advised surgery. No biopsy was done beforehand.
Two surgeries later, the diagnosis was confirmed: cancer. Chemotherapy began. It was aggressive. Eventually, there was kidney failure. The patient survived a year — then passed away.
His wife went to court.
The hospital defended the decision. They claimed a biopsy was risky, that the bleeding couldn’t be controlled. The oncologist claimed the chemo dosage was well within protocol.
But the Commission didn’t buy it.
The key failure, they said, was that the doctors didn’t confirm the nature of the tumour before cutting. A pre-op biopsy might not have changed the outcome — but skipping it altogether was unacceptable.
The verdict: INR 5 lakh compensation for negligence.
In cancer, timing matters. So does confirmation.
