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THE Kuala Lumpur High Court has awarded the widow of a senior lawyer more than RM2 million in damages for medical negligence, reported the New Straits Times.
Justice Akhtar Tahir ordered the government to pay Jayshree LC Doshi, the widow of former Asian International Arbitration Centre director Vinayak Pradhan, RM800,000 for pain and suffering, RM700,000 in special damages, and another RM500,000 in aggravated damages.
High court judge Datuk Akhtar Tahir found the first defendant – a National Cancer Institute radiologist – liable but dismissed the suit against the second defendant – a Kuala Lumpur Hospital plastic surgeon.
Akhtar also ordered the government to pay RM250,000 in costs to Jayshree, whose husband died on March 8, 2020.
However, she was ordered to pay RM30,000 in costs for the failed suit against the second defendant and the government.
In his judgement released last week, Akhtar said aggravated damages were awarded as the first defendant did not show compassion after being informed of burns suffered by Vinayak.
“He also took a lackadaisical attitude in responding to the distress of the plaintiff and the deceased,” the judge said, adding the defendant did not show any remorse when testifying.
Akthar said Vinayak was healthy before he underwent a radiofrequency ablation (RFA) procedure, which later left him bedridden and in excruciating pain.
As a result, he had to undergo various medical procedures.
According to the facts of the case, Vinayak developed a thymic neuroendocrine tumour and underwent surgery in 1998 and 2004.
In September 2017, the tumour resurfaced and he was referred to NCI.
The following month, a meeting involving NCI doctors from different disciplines, including the radiologist, decided that the tumor be treated by cryoablation, which involves the use of extremely cold temperatures to destroy cancerous tissues.
However, in December 2017, the radiologist decided to perform the RFA procedure instead.
Jayshree and her husband were not informed that the NCI meeting recommended cryoablation and only found out about it from a medical report she received from NCI in 2020 after Vinayak’s death.
Akhtar said the radiologist had induced the couple to agree to the RFA by telling them it carried minimal risk.
He said if Jayshree or Vinayak had known of the potential risk, they would have sought a second opinion and doubted if the radiologist had a detailed surgery plan.
Jayshree was represented by lawyers Datuk Ambiga Sreenevasan, James Khong and Edwin Lim, while federal counsel K Saravanan and Noorul Fhaiez Nayan appeared for the doctors and the government. – September 11, 2024