New Delhi: The National Consumer Dispute Redressal Commission (NCDRC) passed order against the Hospital and Facio Maxillary Surgeon for not following the ABC of trauma management while treating an accident patient leading to the death of the patient. The top consumer court held the hospital and surgeon negligent and directed them to pay Rs. 30 lakhs as compensation to the relative of the deceased. NCDRC further said that the State Commission has erred in dismissing the complaint against the surgeon by considering negligence as “Error of Judgement”. The order of NCDRC stated that “The true position that an error of judgement will be treated as negligent or not will depend on the nature of error.”
NCDRC order further said “The surgeon was right in carrying out the interdental wiring as the patient had fractured the mandible but was wrong in other aspects of managing the trauma patient. The surgeon failed to do proper assessment of airway, risk to patient from Cervical spine injury and without even allowing the patient to stabilizeundertook the interdental wiring in undue haste. As per the Advanced Trauma Life Support (ATLS) protocol the first priority in the care of all trauma patients is the affirmation of a patient airway to ensure adequate oxygenation and ventilation. The surgeon failed to follow the ABC of trauma management which led to the death of the patient which was caused by hypoxia.”
NCDRC concluded that “ It was not a case of Error of Judgement but breach in duty of care from the doctors which resulted in the death of the patient. They have not exercised the basics of ABC of trauma patient and hence negligent”.