Doctor sued for Rs20m over botched operation

Petitioner claims surgical sponge was left in his wife’s abdomen.

LAHORE:

A consumer court has issued notice to the chief executive of Ammar Medical Complex and gynaecologist Dr Maryam Malik for February 12 in a suit seeking damages of Rs20 million from the respondents for allegedly botching an operation.

Petitioner Amir Sohail submitted that Dr Malik had operated on his wife at the hospital on Jail Road on September 21, conducting a total abdominal hysterectomy to remove her uterus. He said that after the operation, his wife’s stitches did not heal, she developed an infection, and blood and puss began oozing from the surgical wound.

Dr Malik prescribed her some medicine, he said, but his wife got worse. He then took her to Ganga Ram Hospital, where an ultrasound indicated that there was a mass in her abdomen that needed surgery. He said that when the second operation was conducted, doctors found a sponge left over from the first surgery in her abdomen.

The petitioner submitted that the respondent’s negligence had resulted in agony for him and his wife. He asked the court to direct the respondents to pay Rs20 million in damages.

Dr Malik was not available for comment.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 10^th, 2013.