M L DEB Vs. ROSE MARY LYNGDOH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Even as complaints relating to medical negligence go, this, to our minds, is a singularly rare case.

(2.) Mercifully, the salient facts of the case are basically not in dispute. The relevant and material facts, as borne out by the depositions of the complainant/respondent as well as that of her husband and her brother, together with the documents produced by them as evidence before the District Forum, Shillong, are that on 6.6.1995 the complainant/mother took her 18-days old twin daughters to the appellant-doctor, who held the degrees of D. C. H. (Dublin), D. C. H. R. P. (Ireland) and D. T. M. and H. (Liverpol), at his private clinic at Shillong for treatment, as the twins were seriously ill. The complainant was accompanied by her husband i. e. , father of the infants, and also her own brother. The appellant-doctor examined the first baby and told the parents that they had brought a baby who was already dead. When the shocked complainant-mother requested the doctor to re-examine the baby he said it was useless to examine a dead child and that nothing could be done. He further wrote in the discharge certificate "brought dead.6.6.1995, 11 a. m. " As regards the second baby he prescribed some medicines and advised the parents to rush the baby to hospital for treatment.

(3.) Accordingly the complainant rushed to a Hospital to get the second twin admitted. While the infants' father suggested that the first twin be taken to their village for burial, the complainant's brother, believing in the doctor's declaration of death, even went to the extent of ordering a coffin for the 'dead' baby. However, the complainant with her motherly instinct still believed that her baby was alive and prevailed upon her husband to also take their first twin to the hospital.