A woman has sued three doctors for Rs50 million for allegedly botching three operations and removing her ovary and part of her large intestine when all she needed was removal of a cyst.
A consumer court on Monday issued notices for July 4 to the three doctors on the petition of Farzana Saleem, a resident of EME Society. She said that she went to the Punjab Medical Centre last year and met with Dr Fakharunnisa, who recommended that she undergo surgery to remove the cyst from her left ovary. She also recommended that her daughter Dr Aisha Malik do the surgery.
Saleem said that she was operated on on December 24, 2010. Dr Malik told her husband that the operation had been successful and that the patient’s left ovary had been removed. Her husband, she said, was shocked as the doctors hadn’t told them that they would be removing her ovary.
She said that she returned home on December 25 but felt severe pain in her abdomen. She said when her husband contacted the doctors, they told him that the post-surgery pain was normal. But her situation got worse and she was taken to Akhtar Saeed Trust Hospital on December 27, where doctors recommended that she be taken back to the hospital where she was operated on because her condition was critical.
She said she was again operated on at the Punjab Medical Centre on January 5, this time by surgeon Dr Muneer Imran. She said her condition deteriorated further on January 8, when fluid began leaking from her surgery wounds.
She was finally taken to Shaikh Zayed Hospital on January 12 and operated on for a third time, when doctors found a 3-4cm perforation in the wall of the recto-sygmoid junction, which resulted in a leakage of material from her intestines into her pelvic area. Doctors kept the abdomen cavity open till January 21 and she was operated on again on January 21. She was eventually discharged from the hospital on February 21, she said.
The petitioner’s counsel Advocate Monim Sultan asked the court to direct the respondents Dr Fakharunnisa, Dr Malik and Dr Imran to pay Rs50 million for damages, mental torture and defective services. Talking to The Express Tribune, Dr Imran said that the patient had been in serious condition due to the damage done to her large intestine. He said that he was called after the first operation. He said the other respondents were out of the country and wouldn’t return till next month.
Published in The Express Tribune, June 14th, 2011.
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