Medical negligence: IHC to take up intra-court appeal of three doctors

Medical practitioners are accused of ending a five-week pregnancy

ISLAMABAD: A division bench of the Islamabad High Court will take up intra-court appeal (ICA) of three doctors allegedly involved in ending a pregnancy at five weeks.

Initially, a single bench ordered the police to register a case against the doctors but later the division bench, comprising Justice Noorul Haq Qureshi and Justice Athar Minallah, had suspended the order on April 28.

The bench had suspended the order, while hearing the ICA filed by Dr Rizwan Uppal of the Islamabad Diagnostic Center (IDC).

On the previous hearing, the court accepted his stay and issued notices to the respondents.

On April 27, the IHC judge Shaukat Aziz Siddiqui ordered the Margallah SHO to register a case against two doctors from IDC — Dr Uppal 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 alleged negligence.

The counsel for Uppal argued that the IDC just performed an ultra sound, Nisar took medicines from another hospital and her miscarriage happened at another hospital.

Besides, the counsel said, the Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PMDC) was the authorised forum for registration of the complaints against the malpractices and misconduct of doctors.

He added that Nisar had already filed a complaint before the PMDC and it was pending adjudication there.

Nisar had gone to the IDC in F-8 on October 20, 2015 for a routine check-up where Dr Noshaba, after performing an ultrasound, told her that she was having ectopic pregnancy, which can result in the death of the mother.

Allegedly, she then suggested a surgical abortion.

The counsel for Nisar had maintained that she 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.

On October 26, Nisar visited another Dr Zafar Ultrasound 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 the IDC and shared the report she got from the other doctor.

The IDC doctors performed another ultrasound, which verified the other doctor’s report and suggested that she may continue with her pregnancy.

At this point, Dr Uppal took the previously-issued report from the woman, tore it up, and issued a fresh report, the counsel claimed. The very next day, Nisar was admitted to the Family Health Hospital in 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.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 16^th, 2016.