The State Consumer Redressal Forum has upheld a district forum's order which had directed a gynaecologist to pay Rs 5 lakh to a man and his children after his wife died of complications following a cesarean delivery.
Dr Jayantibhai Jain had challenged the district forum's order after Mohammed Hanif Saiyed filed a case against him. The case pertains to a cesarean delivery that Dr Jain had performed in 2011 on Aminaben, wife of Saiyed. Though the delivery was successful within half an hour, the patient began to feel giddy and breathless. A physician and one more doctor was called to examine the patient following which Dr Jain advised that she be shifted to another hospital. The attending doctor at the ICU in VS hospital where Aminaben was shifted immediately declared it to be a 'fail case' and the patient died the next day.
While upholding the district forum's order, the state forum observed that the post-mortem report stated that the cause of death was shock from haemorrhage as a result of injury to the uterus.
The report also said that 1500ml of blood mixed with blood clots was present in the abdominal cavity. The forum was not convinced by the doctor's argument that there was no injury to the uterus during the cesarean.
The court relied on the testimony of the doctor who performed the post-mortem that there was 2cm cut below the patient's stitches. The counsel for the doctor had raised doubts stating that there was no record of the injury after the cesarean was done at the hospital in Viramgam.
The court did not buy the argument on the grounds that the post-mortem report clearly stated that the 2cm long cut below the stitches, deep on the long endometrial tissue is only possible to have happened during the cesarean.
It further observed that at VS Hospital, the patient had not been operated upon and had been given only life-supporting treatment so there was no question of a patient suffering an injury there.
On the post-mortem doctor's statement that blood in the abdominal cavity can also be collected while transferring patient from Viramgam to Ahmedabad, the court observed that if that argument was accepted then perhaps the travel had resulted in the patient's condition becomes critical. The court said this, however, was not the case as Dr Jain had called two other doctors as the patient's condition worsened and this itself showed that the patient was critical while being treated at the hospital post delivery.
It also relied on the post-mortem doctors testimony that normally blood clots are not seen near cut marks in the uterus and concluded that it was an injury sustained during the cesarean section and blood had collected in the abdominal cavity due to this injury. It thus found the doctor guilty of medical negligence.
ORDER
Dr Jayantibhai Jain had challenged the district forum’s order after Mohammed Hanif Saiyed filed a case against him.
