2 doctors, 2 hospitals in Hyderabad to pay compensation for medical scam
Hyderabad: The Hyderabad District Consumer Redressal Forum has ordered Sigma Hospital and Poulomi Hospital to pay compensation of Rs 50,000 and Rs 1 lakh respectively, and return the cost of heart surgeries and tests amounting to Rs 1.8 lakh to a patient who complained of being wrongly advised and treated by the two institutions.
The forum found that Poulomi Hospital had run tests recommended for heart surgery on the patient, P. Krishnan Kutty, 59, of Moula Ali, when such a test was unnecessary, and that Sigma Hospital performed a surgery when the condition could have been treated with medicine.
Mr Kutty filed the complaint against the two hospitals and Dr Y.P. Raju, senior intervention cardiologist of Poulomi Hospital, and Dr Krishna Kishore Reddy, consultant cardiologist at Sigma Hospital.
Mr Kutty said he had consulted Dr Raju at Poulomi Hospital after experiencing chest pain on July 21, 2012. He was asked to undergo diagnostic tests. As per established norms and treatment protocol, a patient with right side chest pain must be referred to an electrocardiogram. Instead, he was directly referred to the 2D Echo and coronary angiogram, he said.
The 2D echo report revealed normal cardiac valves, normal sized and good LV/function. It showed left vertical ejection factor at 65 per cent. At this level, surgery should not be recommended as the condition can be treated with medication, he said in his complaint.
The coronary angio-gram was normal, except for stating that “the right coronary artery is mild long significant segment with 90% stenosis.” When the LVEF shows 65 per cent ejection factor, the disease cannot be 90 per cent and that patient cannot be recommended for heart surgery, Mr Kutty said.
The hospital charged Mr Kutty Rs 16,980 for the diagnostic tests. He then approached Sigma Hospital for a second opinion. He was told to do an angioplasty and charged Rs 1.8 lakh for the same.
This surgery failed as the stent got struck at the mid-portion of the right coronary artery in calcium speckles and the balloon came out of the stent. A second attempt, in September 2012, also failed.
The complainant then approached Care Hospital where a treadmill test was performed. The report said that “Polar map did not show any defect”, there was “good LV function” and “no significant stress inducible ischemia”. The ECG also did not reveal anything abnormal.
Poulomi Hospital, in its counter to the consumer forum, said there was no deficiency of service and the patient was well-attended to and treated.
Dr Raju said the complainant was a high risk patient, a chronic smoker with diabetes. The ECG brought by him was normal so they took further tests. A treadmill test is not feasible in elderly people as most of them cannot walk or run on the treadmill. Coronary angiography was done for accuracy of detection of the disease, he stated.
Sigma Hospital said that the complainant’s case was rare and it was difficult to pass even the smallest of balloons (to keep the stent open because of calcium build-up in the artery.
Dr Krishna Kishore and Sigma Hospital said it was false and incorrect to state that there was inefficiency and incompetence. They said the graft to the right coronary artery was not planned immediately, and the complainant got discharged against medical advice.
