Mohali hospital told to pay ₹5L to army veteran who received ‘wrong’ pacemaker implant

The retired army officer had alleged that the Mohali hospital failed to implant an MRI-compatible pacemaker as per his consent

The State Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission has directed a Mohali hospital and its director of cardiology department to pay ₹5 lakh compensation to a retired army officer for allegedly not implanting an MRI-compatible pacemaker as per his consent.

A Mohali hospital was told to pay ₹5L to an army veteran who received ‘wrong’ pacemaker implant. (iStockphoto)

The commission order came on the plea of Col Mohan Singh (retd), a Sector-64 resident, in a case filed by him in 2018 against Fortis hospital, Mohali, and its director of cardiology department, Dr GS Kalra. Singh had also arrayed ECHS as party, but the plea against it was dismissed.

The commission observed that trust was one of the central features of patient-physician relationship and unfair trade practice was one of the obvious reasons for diminishing patient – doctor trust, as had been done in the present case.

The allegations were that after undergoing various tests at the hospital, doctors advised implantation of a permanent pacemaker. The same was done on November 2, 2016, but the complainant found that the pacemaker implanted in his body was not MRI- compatible, to which he had consented.

The hospital and the doctor had denied the allegations and submitted that the complainant was clearly told by the hospital authorities that the permanent pacemaker implant which has been approved by the ECHS authorities would be used in his case. More than six years have elapsed since the pacemaker was implanted in the appellant’s case and the same is working well, it had argued.

However, the commission, after perusal of the record, said that it did not agree with the hospital’s argument and termed it a case of deficiency in rendering service and unfair trade practice. The hospital and doctor have been told to jointly compensate the veteran — for causing mental agony and for deficiency in services — with ₹5 lakh and also refund ₹71,800 and ₹30,000 as cost of litigation within one month.