Padma winner Dr Prafulla Desai to pay Rs15 lakh for medical negligence

The Bombay High Court has directed Padma Vibhushan winner Dr Prafulla Desai to pay Rs15 lakh as compensation to former IAS officer PC Singhi for medical negligence while treating his wife.

The HC also found Dr Desai guilty of breaching a contract between a patient and doctor.

Justice Roshan Dalvi passed the order while hearing a suit filed by Dr PC Singhi against Dr Desai in 1989. According to the petition, Dr Desai refused to operate upon Singhi’s wife though she was her patient. His assistant Dr Mukherjee performed the surgery, which was originally forced upon the patient by Dr Desai without considering the opinion of the US surgeon who had diagnosed Leela earlier and opined that no surgery should be done on her.

Leela was treated at a hospital in Jaipur after being discharged from the Bombay Hospital. She later died there. Dr Singhi then filed a criminal negligence case in a lower court and demanded a compensation of Rs24 lakh.

The HC directed Dr Desai to pay the amount to Dr Singhi at the earliest. It refused to grant any stay on its order until Desai challenges it in a higher court. Desai has been told to pay interest on the compensation amount at the rate of 6% from 1989 till date. Further medical expenses and nursing expenses incurred by Dr Singhi on his wife Leela at a Jaipur hospital should be reimbursed with 16% interest from the day of the bills till today.

A metropolitan court on July 5 convicted Dr Desai for causing criminal negligence in treating Leela, who was suffering from terminal stomach cancer. The court sent Dr Desai to one day in prison. The magistrate also imposed a fine of Rs50,000. The judgment came 24 years after Leela’s death.