India’s one of the best medical institutes, All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), was found guilty of negligence in diagnosis of a woman patient nine years ago. A consumer court in Delhi has held the AIIMS guilty for wrongly diagnosing a woman as cancer patient.

This was not the end of the story and the doctors removed her right breast as a part of treatment. Now, the consumer court has directed the AIIMS to pay Rs 5 lakh to the woman as compensation for the negligence and for the wrong treatment.

According to the report, Ayesha Begum, 50, who was a resident of Bareilly in Uttar Pradesh, had come to AIIMS. Begum was referred to AIIMS for suspected breast cancer in 1998 by a clinic in Bareilly.

The doctors at AIIMS wrongly diagnosed her as cancer patient. She underwent surgery and radiotherapy. After the treatment, she became physically handicapped due to the medication that was not required at all.

In a standard medical procedure, the tumour was sent for examination and the report was found negative for cancer. Another test revealed that she never had suffered from cancer.

State Consumer Commission president Justice J D Kapoor held the AIIMS guilty of negligence in treatment and said:

The diagnosis was wrong; the examination of the complainant was not proper. That case was not related to an error of judgment but that is a case of either negligence or incompetence of AIIMS doctors.

The commission criticized the AIIMS for not taking proper diagnosis of Begum’s ailment. In such cases, the perfection and confirmation of the existence of cancer is essential.

Justice Kapoor and Commission member Mahesh Chandra said:

We find that the negligence of AIIMS was limited to the extent of wrong diagnosis that resulted in very serious consequences that the right breast and arm pit of the complainant were removed.

We deem that a compensation of Rs 5 lakh for the mental agony, trauma, emotional suffering and disfigurement of her body causing immense life-long loss of conjugal bliss, shall meet the ends of justice.

The AIIMS had told the Commission that the patient had consented for undergoing the treatment in that case. However, the commission rejected the plea and held the Institution guilty of negligence.

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