R GOPINATHAN Vs. ESKEYCEE MEDICAL FOUNDATION PRIVATE LTD

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This is an appeal against the order dated 10th April, 1992 passed by the State Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission, Tamil Nadu in O.P. No. 199 of 1991 by which the complaint filed by the present Appellant R. Gopinath (hereinafter referred to as the Complainant) against the present Respondents was dismissed.

(2.) At the present order is affirmation of the order passed by the State Commission we may narrate the facts only briefly.

(3.) The facts as alleged in the complaint are that the Complainant, who is an Advocate, met with a motor accident on 26th October, 1989 at about 6.20 p.m. A lorry belonging to Metropolitan Water Supply & Sewerage Board had run over the right ankle of the complainant. He was immediately taken to Devaki Hospital belonging to the first Respondent. The duty Doctor attended on him. The complainant requested for an Orthopaedician's attendance and service but only a Anesthetist attended on him. X-rays of the injured part of the right leg of the complainant were taken from different angles. The complainant was given Fort win injection as a pain killer. The injury was bandaged very tightly and the leg was kept on a stand without any movement. In spite of the sedation the complainant started shouting and crying on account of severe pain. The Doctors at the hospital and the staff refused the request of the complainant and his wife, who had come later on hearing about the accident, to get an opinion from an Orthopaedician. The Complainant was kept continuously under sedation. On 27th October, 1989 at about 8.00 p.m. Respondent No. 2 Dr. K. Chockalingam examined the complainant. On the next day at about 8.30 a.m. a dose of Calmpose was administered by the Doctor of the hospital as the complainant was complaining of severe pain. Thereafter, the complainant's wife and his Advocate colleagues insisted for treatment under an Orthopaedic Specialist. Without informing the complainant's wife and his colleagues the complainant was taken to the Operation Theatre on the same day i.e. on 27th October, 1989 in the afternoon and was put under anesthesia and was operated upon by Respondent No. 2 Dr. K. Chockalingam. After operation the complainant was brought out and taken for post operative cafe. The complainant's wife and his Advocate friends questioned the act of Respondent No.2 who is alleged not to be an Orthopaedician, in performing the operation without getting their consent. They were informed by the hospital staff that they had obtained the consent of the complainant himself. It may be mentioned here that according to the complainant, his wife and colleagues had gone out of the hospital at about 12.00 noon on that day for getting an Orthopaedician's opinion. The complainant's wife and his Advocate colleagues obtained X-rays reports and Radiologist's reports from the hospital and contacted Dr. Ardhanari, M.S., Orthopaedician forgetting his second opinion as they had noticed that the method of medical care and treatment given to the complainant was not satisfactory. On the advice of Dr. Ardhanari the complainant was shifted to Vijaya Hospital for proper medical care and treatment by Dr. P.V.A. Mohandas at 8.30 p.m. on 28th October, 1989. (It may be mentioned here that the discharge of the complainant from Devaki Hospital was obtained by his wife and friends against medical advice at 8.00 p.m. on 28.10.1989.) Dr. Mohandas on the same night opened the plaster applied at the operated leg of the complainant at the Respondent's hospital and found the formation of Haematoma and infection which according to the said Doctor was the cause of pain. Dr. Mohandas evacuated Haematoma and left the wound open. On 30th October, he removed the fixtures done in the Devaki Hospital and fixed fixtures in his own method. The wife of the complainant gave her consent for this second surgery.