In what is being termed as a historic verdict, the Lahore Consumer Court has ordered a Lahore-based doctor to pay a fine of Rs227 million for committing medical negligence in a three-month-old girl’s treatment case.
In the consumer court, former dean of the Lahore Children’s Hospital, Dr Tahir Masood, has been charged under the section of criminal medical negligence for not properly treating his employer, Syed Ali Murtaza’s daughter. Because of the maltreatment, the girl’s liver was damaged beyond repair, and it was only after she got a liver transplant in Britain that her life was saved.
The girl’s father, Murtaza, mentioned in his petition that his daughter was born on May 31, 2007, and in June, Dr Masood diagnosed her with Hepatitis A (Jaundice). He assured Murtaza that a two-month long treatment plan will make his daughter healthier as ever. But according to the petition, the girl did not get better during this timeframe and the doctor kept advising the father to conduct expensive pathological tests, which he did. However, when his daughter did not get better even after all the tests and treatments, Murtaza accused Dr Masood of medical negligence and stated that his daughter had gone from bad to worse because of his inept treatment methods.
Murtaza further explained that in order to save his daughter’s life, he had to take her to London to have her liver transplanted at the Kings College Hospital, which cost him a fortune of £206,600. He also added that the government of Punjab funded him with £155,000 for the transplant.
Dr Masood, during the trail, challenged the charges leveled against him, but he was unable to prove his innocence. Justice Syed Khursheed Anwer Rizvi ordered him to pay £155,000 to the Punjab government and £97,277 to the patient’s father to cover his expenses of travel and treatment abroad. Furthermore, the doctor will also have to pay Rs13.07 million to Murtaza for the ordeal he has made him go through. The case ended seven years after the initial treatment.
