NIRMAL KUMAR JAIN Vs. INDRAPRASTHA APPOLLO HOSPITALS

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Case of the complainant A 16 year old girl Ms. Alka Jain got up with pain in the head and shoulder on 10.2.1997. The complainants consulted their family physician Dr. S. K. Mehta, Model Town, Delhi, who prescribed certain medication. As the patient did not respond favourably to the above treatment, urine test was conducted, reports of which came negative, but the condition of the patient did not improve. Therefore, Dr. Mehta referred the patient to Khosla Nursing Home, Shalimar Bagh, New Delhi, wherein she was admitted on 17.2.97 and put on glucose intravenously. A CT Scan was done at Sarla Diagnostic Centre and the disease was diagnosed as Bilateral Papilloedema. As the patient started seeing double images MRI(Magnetic Resonance Image) was advised.

(2.) On 19.2.97 Mr. Panna Lal Jain, maternal uncle of the patient and brother -in -law of the complainant No.2 accompanied the patient and her father to Indraprastha Appollo Hospital wherein she was admitted as an inpatient. On 20.2.97 MRI was conducted along with certain other tests. On 22.2.97 the opposite parties got a consent note, duly signed, from the said Panna Lal Jain for conducting test for CSF(Cerebro Spinal Fluid).

(3.) The complainants alleged that at 9.00 hrs. on 22.2.97 Panna Lal Jain and father of the complainant could hear the patients screams and rushed inside her room and saw with their own eyes that Dr. Mohanty, opposite party No.6 with the assistance of two ward boys and two nurses were forcing the head of the deceased patient downwards on a table, while the deceased patient was in the sitting position, wringing both her arms at the back and virtually pinning her down from the back with excessive force, wrestling style. At the same time Dr. Mohanty trying to force a needle in the lower back of the patient. The patient screamed in pain and resisted violently to set herself free. But Dr. Mohanty kept on with his probe with same retaliatory force which caused an unbearable sight to the complainants. The staff directed both of them to leave the room. Soon after the said event, when the complainant No.1 peeped in, he saw that the assistants were trying to lay the head of the patient on the pillows and her body spread on the bed by pulling her legs straight while the patient appeared to be subconscious or unconscious.