Medical negligence? IHC orders registration of FIR against doctors

Woman alleges their negligence led her to unnecessarily abort pregnancy after five weeks

ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad High Court on Wednesday ordered the registration of an FIR against three doctors for their alleged role in the ‘unnecessary’ abortion of a five-week pregnancy.

IHC judge Shaukat Aziz Siddiqui ordered the Margalla SHO to register a case against two doctors from the Islamabad Diagnostic Center — Dr Rizwan Oppel and Dr Noshaba, and Dr Shamsa Rizwan of Ali Medical Hospital.

The directives were issued on a petition filed by Arooj Nisar, who said that she was carrying twins when she had the abortion on the advice of the doctors, and that the police were not registering a case against them for their negligence.

“The local police are working in connivance with the culprits and not ready to act according to the law,” Nisar’s counsel Raja Nisarul Haq Abbasi said.

He said that his client went to the Islamabad Diagnostic Centre (IDC) in Sector F-8 on October 20, 2015 for a routine check-up and that Dr Noshaba, after performing an ultrasound, told her that she was having ectopic pregnancy, which can result in the death of the mother.

“The petitioner got frightened,” the counsel said, adding that Dr Noshaba then suggested a surgical abortion.

He said Arooj then went to Ali Medical Hospital in I-9, where Dr Shamsa Rizwan suggested that she take an intravenous drug and some tablets to induce abortion. “My client acted upon the advice of Dr Noshaba and Dr Shamsa,” he said.

On October 26, Arooj visited another clinic, where a doctor performed an ultrasound and found that the pregnancy was normal and that she was carrying twins. The petitioner, however, had already taken the medicine.

Subsequently, she went to IDC and shared the report she got from the other doctor. The IDC doctors performed another ultrasound, which verified the other doctor’s report, according to the petition. The IDC doctors also suggested that she may continue with her pregnancy.

At this point, Dr Rizwan Oppal took the previously-issued report from the woman, tore it up, and issued a fresh report, the counsel claimed.

The very next day, Arooj was admitted to the Family Health Hospital in Sector I-10 after she felt abdominal pain and started bleeding, the counsel said. He added that the doctors at the hospital informed her that the pregnancy ended in miscarriage because of the medicines she had taken earlier.

“The heinous crime was committed for the purpose of extracting money and the [pregnancy was] aborted due to criminal negligence, but the police are not ready to register the case,” he said.

Abbasi argued that if a case was not registered, there was a strong possibility that the “culprits” would repeat the offence with other innocent people.

The petitioner also claimed that she has a video in which Dr Noshaba and Dr Rizwan admitted their fault and apologised to her, but the police did not entertain her application.

Earlier, she had approached a sessions court seeking directives for the police to register a case against the doctors, but the court dismissed her application.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 28^th, 2016.