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LAHORE: In a landmark decision on a damages suit, the Lahore Consumer Court ordered on Monday a doctor to pay 212,267 pounds sterling (Rs33.963 million) and Rs13.07m to a man for causing permanent damage to the liver of his new-born daughter in 2007.
The court found Professor Dr Tahir Masood, a former dean of the Children Hospital, guilty of showing criminal negligence while treating Syeda Durr-e-Zahra, daughter of Syed Ali Murtaza, a government official.
The baby, however, survived after liver transplant in the United Kingdom.
The complainant stated in his petition that his daughter was born on May 31, 2007 and examined by Dr Masood in June.
He diagnosed ordinary jaundice and assured the father that the disease would go away within two months. But the condition of the child did not improve and Dr Masood continued to advise expensive pathological tests, Mr Murtaza said.
He alleged that the excessive tests of his daughter and ignorance shown by the professor in the treatment led to a permanent damage of the baby’s liver.
He said that he took his baby to the UK for liver transplant and spent 206,625 pounds at the Kings College Hospital in London. The Punjab government provided him 155,000 pounds for the transplant.
Dr Masood contested the allegation but failed to establish his innocence.
The judge, Syed Khurshid Anwar Rizvi, ordered Dr Masood to pay 155,000 pounds to the Punjab government.
He also ordered him to pay the complainant 57,267 pounds as partial cost of the treatment and Rs 13.07m as the cost of travel to the UK, stay there and recurrent medical expenditure of the infant.
He also directed the professor to pay Rs100,000 to Mr Murtaza as litigation charges.
The judge directed the provincial health secretary to ensure recovery of the amount for the government.
He directed the Punjab Healthcare Commission to determine whether medical practice being pursued by Dr Masood posed a threat to the lives of his patients.
Published in Dawn, August 11th, 2015
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Comments (52) Closed
Aug 11, 2015 06:37am
Good decion.many doctors are careless and need this kind of reminders.salute to judge sahib.
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Aug 11, 2015 06:41am
wow is this really happening in Pakistan ??? Doctor should be put on ECL list so he wouldn't be able to escape.....
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Aug 11, 2015 06:49am
Accountability for healthcare professional is a welcomed change in Pakistan. Being a practicing physician in US i feel patients dont have a voice in pakistan. However, just by reading this report i am not sure what the fault of the treating physician? what was the ultimate diagnosis? What tests were ordered and why were they considered excessive? the testing indicates that he was atleast trying to establish the diagnosis? was he clinically incompetent ? lots of questions to be answered...lastly why did the Gov of punjab spent 155k pounds on the girls treatment. I am happy that the girl is fine however who provides for the poor kids that need urgent medical care??? can you please update the article with more info.
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Aug 11, 2015 06:55am
A really good decision. This will put our lethargic doctors on their heel.
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Aug 11, 2015 06:57am
Wil he have that much money to.pay, btw good decision, but this is not just the one doctors moat of the doctors I'm.the country are either half educated or commit serious criminal.negligence while treating patients and the nexus of pathology labs and doc and pharmaceutical companies make a mafia in the country on the name health.
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Aug 11, 2015 06:59am
Well-done. In Pakistan medical professionals do practice for experience on patients without any repercussions. The Govt. should make a separate legal authority which can investigate untoward incidents and medical negligence. But beware of YDA and other senior consultants who wouldn't let this happen. Hence no hope!!!!!!
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Aug 11, 2015 07:00am
Way to go! History in making. A giant forward in accountability.
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Aug 11, 2015 07:01am
Justice finally. Hopefully other doctors will learn a lesson from this and be more careful with their patients and don't treat them like as something a daily chore. Patients are humans too.
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Aug 11, 2015 07:01am
Suits like these will improve medical care in Pakistan.
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Aug 11, 2015 07:08am
Dr. Masood is correct. Judgement based on ignorance of facts is always faulty.
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Aug 11, 2015 07:19am
Justice bought.....how was the doctor at fault....2ndly the mother of my friend needs trsnsplant....would punjab govt pay her expenses too?
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Aug 11, 2015 07:35am
This has to be a first for Pakistan. I don't know where the doctor would come up with this kind of money, but this decision should be ringing alarm bells in the hospitals and clinics around the country, which have been treating their patients as cattle.
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Aug 11, 2015 07:57am
Haven't the other doctors gone on strike yet to defend the incompetence and negligence of their colleague ?
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Aug 11, 2015 08:00am
A country where murderers, money launderers and child molesters roam free while senior and widely respected professionals get penalized. I am not surprised at the trend in doctors to leave this country.
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Aug 11, 2015 09:40am
Good start. Recovery should be ensured.
BTW is this consumer court working in Punjab province only or all over Pakistan?
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Aug 11, 2015 09:55am
Mr. Sayed Ali Murtaza is one of those few fortunate Pakistanis who not only find justice but also money for treating their kids in England. Wish every Pakistani is treated similarly in courts and in hospitals.
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Aug 11, 2015 10:16am
A good decision ... Finally !!
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Aug 11, 2015 10:30am
i dnt think this is really a justice. mr murtaza had some backup support for gaining that much benefits.. he was a dr not GOD to make her healthy by his magical words. a doc can only effort and he did.. if he was not able to properly diagnose, its not his negligence but the misfortune of the girl...
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Aug 11, 2015 10:32am
Very good decision by the court. But i will request to narrate the whole story about the said doctor his point of view. Than
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Aug 11, 2015 11:35am
One off case, only in Punjab, we wish and pray that all such criminal acts of doctors and healthcare providers to have similar treatment in courts but before we do that the trust factor has to be re-established in the judiciary.
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Aug 11, 2015 11:45am
People are praising the judgement of the judge with out knowing the doctors version of the whole story.The DAWN should take the concerned doctors version and tell the readers about what exactly happened so that public get the complete facts.
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Aug 11, 2015 12:14pm
There are numerous questions:
1) Why the Govt of Punjab to pay for the treatment at first place? Obviously, the girl's father must be influential and close to sharifs.
2) This statement does not make sense: "Dr Masood contested the allegation but failed to establish his innocence." In civil cases, burden of proof is on the plaintiff and not on defendant. Why defendant had to prove his innocence?
3) This statement also does not make sense: "guilty of showing criminal negligence while treating Syeda Durr-e-Zahra, daughter of Syed Ali Murtaza, a government official." Where did criminal negligence come in into a civil case? How do you find someone guilty in a civil case?
4) This is not a norm, instead, it appears to be a power win by a powerful Govt official.
Look carefully, read carefully, it is mockery of justice.
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Aug 11, 2015 12:23pm
Very nice...
These doctors deserve this. Another happy day for Pakistanis.
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Aug 11, 2015 01:01pm
Good decision. This is the only way we can stop the doctors from doing evil practices. They cause damage to people thorugh negligence, unfair charging of bills, manipulating inncocent people with wrong and false identification of diseases and then they charge them heavily.
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Aug 11, 2015 01:19pm
Good for the child and hopefully she lives a healthy life. But just wondering,how come the father was able to pay over 200000 Pounds in UK. Must be a big fish or close to CM Punjab that he was able to get 150k Pounds from Punjab govt, where if they would have spent this amount of money to build a hospital where thousands could get treatment. Secondly, winning in a court, I hear this first time where so many wealthy families were not able to even bring any culprit doctor to the court, only FB campaigns.
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Aug 11, 2015 01:38pm
Suing doctors should be made easy by appointing special medical magistrates where the victims need not pay any money for raising their voice. You can do it easily in the country I live(Saudi Arabia). therefore doctors immediately refer the case to a higher if they have iota of doubt in their treatment.
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Aug 11, 2015 01:41pm
The decision seems for influence persons only , first how a government of Punjab employee got managed a huge amount from government when other ordinary employees even denied treatment here in the country , it all seems justice & medical facilities only for selectives not for ordinary ones.
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Aug 11, 2015 03:03pm
This should go to Anti-Terrorism court as well. These doctors are criminals, the don't pay taxes and make millions in commissions from pharma companies. Playing with people's life is normal.
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Aug 11, 2015 03:06pm
How did this govt. official managed to get 150K+ British Pounds from the Punjab govt. while thousands of other needy people can't even get basic healthcare? Truly astonishing !!!!!!!!!
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Aug 11, 2015 03:27pm
Elite Vs Elite Class.
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Aug 11, 2015 03:36pm
so sad to see the views of people who do not know about the disease and doctor. their hate for doctors is making them blind about justice. if the patient worsened because of disease then only charge on the doctor is not to be able to diagnose the disease. " causing the liver damage " is the term with wrong intention. if he was able to get liver transplant from UK why did he not opted to get his daughter diagnosed in UK in the early phase of disease.
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Aug 11, 2015 03:39pm
Going by all the "nice" comments about doctors, it's only appropriate that our public gets the kind of treatment that they are getting. They truly deserve it. A fool of a judge with no medical knowledge passes a silly judgement. As far as I can see the child had a heredity enzyme deficiency causing liver damage. What can the poor professor do about it sitting in Pakistan. The child needed a transplant and got it. How is that medical negligence?
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Aug 11, 2015 03:40pm
lethal doctors are presiding nowadays,doctors were considered to be damigod for curing patients it was need for taking hunge step against them. excellent job done by judicial.
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Aug 11, 2015 03:52pm
so govt doesnt like paying doctors much but wants good medical care.. lol..u deserve what u pay for
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Aug 11, 2015 04:01pm
It's like a revenge mechanism in pakistan.... everyone is deprived. I fear drs now will fear to take bold decision n will try to save their assess from these illiterate judges..... less paid drs will do less with poor pts but lawyers will get their full pay.... from this limited description it's appears as if child had hereditary prob n transplant was the only solution.... dr has been made an escape goat to justify money embursments
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Aug 11, 2015 04:13pm
What I can make from the story is that this child must be suffering from Biliary Atresia, a condition that eventually requires liver transplant, this is a congenital disorder. Professor missing early diagnosis might have expedited the liver damage, by not offering temporizing surgery that only work for a decade in most cases, but even picking it early couldn't have changed the natural course of disease in this child.
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Aug 11, 2015 04:27pm
I think there is more to it in this story than the way it is presented here,
I believe there should be accountability here as it is in the foreign countries, The Professor is not above the law, he must show competence and commitment to his specialty which should be endorsed by a legal body /PMDC, or whatever to start with. I am not against the doctors but as the system stands, there is a feeling of a holier than thou attitude by the doctors in Pakistan.
I think it is a good thing to claim damages but this should be governed in a proper way by people who actually know what they're doing.
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Aug 11, 2015 05:00pm
A landmark decision to make profesionals resposible for their work but I fear only people with long hands have access to this justice and this decision may not sustain in high court due to poor or missing laws.
On the other hand, does punjab have a law to support all such patients by hefty 155000 pounds for lever transplant in UK? Or it is only for those who can spend 57000 from their own pocket?
This is just an example of king's generosity on public money. A crime has been committed to compensate another. Should we look for a law only for doctors not public money custodians?
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Aug 11, 2015 05:21pm
This really looks like the beginning of a new Pakistan.
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Aug 11, 2015 05:47pm
I fail to understand that if the tests did not establish anything, then how was the doctor responsible. I think doctors should team up quickly if a patient is not responding to treatment within a reasonable period. Two heads are always better than one, they should not make it a question of ego, and instead should make their efforts patient centric. This way they can fight accusations of negligence, and prove their innocence. We hope accountability will be available to all and not only the privileged few.
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Aug 11, 2015 05:50pm
This looks and sounds sensational but whether the doctor committed malpractice, is not clear from this write up. There has to be more than this. Why did the government provide funds? Is that some type of a special fund available to all? I don't think so. There is already an acute shortage of various specialties and this decision will certainly have a chilling affect. Not a good news item.
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Aug 11, 2015 06:15pm
@Mian Amir Hakim It is the old Pakistan, who gets treatment in the UK? and how many Pakistani government support to get such an expensive treatment?
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Aug 11, 2015 06:22pm
@IKE You are the only one , whose comments make sense. Very good Brother
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Aug 11, 2015 06:31pm
The poor civil servant who can get medical traetment from punjab govt.that too in millions and moreover can get justice from a pakistani court,raeally seems a poor civil servant.and how many other poor people can afford this luxary in pakistan.
No version of the doctor concerned in story makes it one sided story,and whether court has the ability to decide in such matters,whats the fun of health care commision,a body having the requirements to judge a case of negligence.
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Aug 11, 2015 06:37pm
Before we as laymen can agree to the judges decision please provide more information.
How old was the patient when the problem started?
Please explain the exact designation of the government official.
Why was second opinion not obtained if the patient was not getting better by Dr Tahir's treatment.
What was the final diagnosis that led to liver transplant.
Finally what did Dr Tahir's did or did not do to deserve this harsh judgement.
Please be very careful making judgments against doctors remember they have taken the oath of Hippocrates not to harm their patients.
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Aug 11, 2015 07:41pm
The Punjab government provided him 155,000 pounds for the transplant? Huh? Now they are giving money to government officials from public exchequer?
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Aug 11, 2015 07:42pm
Sounds like harbinger of a change in Pakistan.
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Aug 12, 2015 12:13am
My cousin who hails from Rawalpindi had his son sent to Gurguaon in India for a liver transplant, accompanied by his mother and brother as the donor. The doctors in Pakistan said there was no hope for him. After sending all the medical reports, the Indian doctors with their experience and expertise said they would help.
The hospital was state of the art and the care world class! Today the little boy is alive and well, Alhamdolillah. The cost - about Rs 28 lac. A fraction of the cost incurred in the UK!
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Aug 12, 2015 03:10am
Just like there are bad automobile drivers, so it is amongst doctors. Those who have not performed due diligence in patient care, should be held accountable. There is a process where professional liability can prove wrong. The writer should have investigated the facts before publishing "an article", like so many readers here have responded with questions.
But, yes, this should be the beginning of holding doctors responsible for their decisions.
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Aug 12, 2015 04:38am
@Tinker Bell Doctors have become a mafia. They charge whatever they want to and then they have this mentality that we are the cream of society and should be treated with all respect otherwise we will leave the country. Dr. Saheb if you go abroad you will learn how much your actions have many legal repercussions. You also live in this lawless country where educated killers (Drs) also roam free.
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Aug 13, 2015 05:01pm
The amount paid by govt. was enough to treat hundreds in Govt. Hospitals where officials use the money for their good. Decision for influential is not uncommon. Game changer would be decision against big fish in favor of common man. NAB now show courage to investigate the govt. and personal findings for treatment.
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Aug 13, 2015 08:06pm
very good decision of the respected court against Dr. I congratulated to court to given so brave decision as well as the affected party to win the case.
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