He had gone to the prestigious Nimhans to get operated on his spinal disc. But during the operation, his food pipe was ruptured, forcing him to depend on liquid diet even two years after the surgical procedure. The Additional District Court Disputes Redressal Forum in the city came to his help and asked National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro Sciences to pay him Rs 1 lakh as compensation.
The court passed the order on a complaint filed by the victim, Mr. Nagesh Rao, a resident of Basaveshwarnagar in Bengaluru. The forum asked the director and registrar of Nimhans to pay the compensation for medical negligence while conducting the procedure for C4-5 Mild Disc-Bulge C5-6 Disc-Prolapse in January 2008.
Mr. Rao, approaching the forum, alleged, “Hiding the fact of damage to my food pipe, hospital authorities began feeding by way of Jejunostomy and also came up with stories that as the re-exploration of cervical wound, removal of plates and screws and bone graft was needed, I was operated again. After the re-operation, I was referred to Dr. Sandeep, gastroenterologist, St. John’s Hospital, and later to Victoria Hospital. After six months of treatment, I am still suffering unstable cervical spine and physical pain. Adding to the woes, even to this day I am still under treatment and I am finding difficult to conduct my day-to-day activities. I have also not been able to work to earn my family's livelihood.”
The counsel argued that Mr. Rao was operated upon by a group of inexperienced doctors causing the oesophagus to tear. But the institute denied the allegations and the complication is not due to the negligence of institute doctors. The discharge summary does not indicate any case of negligence and the oesophageal tear is not because of mishandling of the procedure by the doctors, it argued.