Pay compensation Rs 10L for patient's death: Consumer forum to doctors, nursing home

Two doctors, a local nursing home and its owner have been ordered by a consumer forum here to pay Rs 10 lakh as compensation to the widow and minor children of a person for medical negligence in his surgery for removal of gall-bladder in 2008, leading to his death.

The South West District Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum held Shakuntla Nursing Home of Sagarpur, its owner J Raj Dhami and Dr Bhupendra Pal Dhami and Dr Vikas Gupta (surgeon) guilty of medical negligence on basis of a Delhi Medical Council (DMC) report.

Referring to the report, a bench headed by Narendra Kumar said "the case is a perfect example of malaise which plagues numerous nursing homes run by such unscrupulous persons like J Raj Dhami who project themselves as doctors and lure gullible citizens into their trap and qualified doctors like Dr Gupta, by associating themselves with such individuals, promote such nefarious activities."

The DMC had said there was deficiency in post operative care of the patient and had directed removal of Dr Gupta's name from the state medical register for 30 days, ordered a probe and stringent action against the nursing home and prosecution of J Raj Dhami on the ground that he was not a qualified doctor.

"In light of the observation of DMC, it is clear opposite parties 1 (nursing home), 2 (Raj Dhami), 3 (Dr Bhupendra) and 4 (Dr Gupta) are guilty of medical negligence and liable for payment of compensation to complainants.

"We direct them to pay Rs 10 lakh jointly or severally to the complainants (widow and children of deceased). They are also directed to pay jointly and severally a sum of Rs 20,000 towards cost of litigation," the forum said.

In her complaint, widow Manju Gupta had said her late husband Dinesh Gupta was admitted in the nursing home on January 4, 2008 with abdominal pain.

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