Dr. Harish Kumar Khurana v. Joginder Singh & Ors.
Background
A patient underwent successful kidney surgery on one kidney, and a second operation on her other kidney was scheduled about a week later. During the second surgery, shortly after anaesthesia was administered, she suffered a cardiac arrest and, despite resuscitation efforts, died some days later. Her family alleged medical negligence by the anaesthetist, the operating hospital, and its insurer before the National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission (NCDRC), which found them liable and awarded compensation. The doctor, hospital, and insurer appealed to the Supreme Court.
Decision Breakdown
The Supreme Court allowed the appeals and set aside the NCDRC's finding of negligence. It held that a patient's death during treatment does not by itself prove negligence: there must be actual medical evidence showing the doctor failed to meet the standard of an ordinarily skilled practitioner. Here, the complainants produced no independent medical evidence; the NCDRC had instead relied on its own assumptions (for example, dismissing the doctor's explanation of a case-sheet note) and treated an inquiry report as if it were conclusive medical proof, which the Court found was not a sound basis for a negligence finding against experienced doctors who had performed a successful first surgery on the same patient.
Lesson Learnt
Not every unsuccessful or tragic medical outcome amounts to "negligence" in law: a patient or family alleging medical negligence generally needs credible expert medical evidence to prove the doctor fell below accepted standards of care, not just the fact that something went wrong.