Hyderabad: Man loses sight, doctors to pay Rs 1 lakh

Hyderabad: A 41-year-old businessman from Mahabubnagar was awarded Rs 1 lakh as compensation by the District Consumer Forum, Hyderabad. The amount is to be paid by the urologist Dr K. Rama Krishna and radiologist Dr Raghavender.

Bugganna, the complainant, said that he had approached Dr K. Rama Krishna on January 3, 2014, seeking his opinion regarding a kidney stone that had been treated using Ayurvedic medicine. The doctor told him that his right kidney was not functioning, and gave him drugs to treat the condition. However, the drugs began to affect Bugganna’s eyesight, and he eventually had to undergo eye surgery.

Bugganna then decided to seek a second opinion regarding his renal health. He visited the Vijaya Diagnostic Centre in Hyderabad, where he was told that his right kidney was functioning properly and that he had benefitted greatly from the Ayurvedic treatment.

In his complaint, Bugganna said that the doctor had misdiagnosed him in order to make money. He said that radiologist Dr Raghavender had contributed to the negligence by submitting incorrect reports.

Dr Rama Krishna filed a counter-claim stating that the complainant had approached him with a kidney stone problem and not informed him that he was undergoing Ayurvedic treatment. He said that he had found that the patient’s right kidney was not working properly, and so he had prescribed antibiotics. He said that he never prescribed drugs that had side effects, and that the patient’s claim that his eyesight had been affected was untrue. The doctor further contended that he had never met the radiologist until then.

The Forum found the doctor’s statements to be contradictory. The doctor had written a report about the patient’s kidney on January 4, even though the patient did not visit his clinic after January 3. The Forum observed that the doctor had arrived at a conclusion regarding the patient’s kidney within one day and given him the wrong advice, thus making him guilty of medical negligence. It further found that the urologist and radiologist ran the Siti Endo Scan centre together, and there, must have known each other.

However, what clinched the case was Dr Raghavender’s admission of guilt. The Forum ruled in favour of the complainant and asked the doctors to pay him a sum of Rs 10,000 as compensation, Rs 1,000 to cover his costs and an additional Rs 1,00,000 for the mental agony caused to him.