Infected syringe lands Mumbai doctors in dock

Jagannath Zhagde, 70, who lost his 20-year-old son Minesh in 2002 after a doctor injected him with an infected syringe and needle, was awarded Rs4 lakh compensation by a consumer forum last year, from the two doctors who examined him.

A court held that not giving forceful advice, when the patient is critical, that he needs to be taken to the hospital immediately amounts to medical negligence. The doctors involved were general practitioners — Dr JJ Kini and Dr KG Dalvi from Kandivli — who allegedly failed to advise that the boy needed to be admitted to a hospital, and kept medicating him for fever.

Finally, Minesh was taken to Harkishandas hospital, where the doctor opined he was too weak to be operated upon. He was then taken to Nair hospital where he died on August 6, 2002. A postmortem revealed he died an “unnatural” death due to a chest blood clot.