ABORTION: Indian doctor fined nearly $10,000 for botched procedure

New Delhi, Nov 13 (IANS) The city’s top consumer court has ordered a doctor to pay nearly $10,000  in compensation to a woman whose abortion he botched up not once but twice in 1997, leading to severe medical complications and her uterus being removed.

Kusum Pahwa, a resident of west Delhi, alleged that she not only suffered mental agony due to the medical negligence in the medical termination of pregnancy, or MTP, operation and the follow-up procedure in 1997, causing complications and forcing the removal of her uterus — putting an end to her hopes of becoming a mother.

Responding to her complaint, the Delhi State Consumer Disputes and Redressal Commission in a recent ruling held Dr. R.R. Rana, who carried out the procedures, guilty of medical negligence.

“The complainant suffered prolonged illness agony and pain and she must therefore adequately be compensated for the same,” said commission president Barkat Ali Zaidi.

“The opposite party (OP) No.1 (Rana) will therefore pay to the complainant a sum of Rs.500,000 in all towards compensation, including her treatment expenditure, besides Rs.10,000 as costs of litigation,” Zaidi said in his ruling, a copy of which is available with IANS.

Rana in his defence denied any negligence or deficiency on his part and said the complaint was false, frivolous and exaggerated and deserved to be dismissed. But the commission rejected the plea.

Tags: abortion, India