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Family wins medical case against Delhi hospital

By SIVASISH THAKUR

GUWAHATI, Aug 14 - In a case involving medical negligence on a patient from Assam, the Delhi State Consumer Redressal Commission recently granted Rs 10 lakh compensation (along with interest at the rate of 7 per cent per annum from the date of institution of the complaint till its realisation) to his family after he was given a radiofrequency ablation (RFA) procedure by the Delhi-based Batra Hospital, without disclosing the risk of heart blockage.

Doctors at the Batra Hospital and Medical Research Centre had carried out the RFA procedure on Dilip Kumar Goswami, a senior officer at Numaligarh Refinery Ltd in 2002. The hospital was accused of conducting the procedure, which corrects the electrical system of the heart, without revealing the risk of heart blockage. The patient had to get a permanent pacemaker installed and underwent an open heart surgery due to the machine�s installation.

The court observed the consent forms produced by the doctors were uninformative. It said that the patient was not enlightened about the risks and complications of the cardiac procedures that were performed on him.

�In a mechanical manner, the OP1 Hospital used one consent from without disclosing the different kinds of risks involved. The complainant and his relatives/attendants remained in the dark all along,� the court observed.

Jyoti Bezbaruah Goswami, wife of Dilip Kumar Goswami, who had expired three years back, told The Assam Tribune that the court verdict vindicated their stand on medical negligence by the doctor and the hospital.

�It provides a ray of hope for similar victims of medical negligence even though it took us 15 years of court battle to get justice. My husband did not live to witness it but we continued with the fight. It�s a common man�s triumph over an influential hospital,� she said.

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