Should a General Surgeon perform LSCS? The court says 'No'.
The session court of Delhi held a general surgeon liable for committing medical negligence because he performed lower segment cesarean section after which the patient died out of complications of surgery.
The case is related to a woman who was admitted in a hospital for delivery. The patient underwent cesarean section and delivered a full term male child. After the surgery patient developed severe bleeding and the treating doctor along with the hospital staff started treatment of patient and she was again taken to OT. It was informed by the treating doctor that during the surgical procedure of delivery, some unintentional vein was cut and she has to be operated again. Later the relatives were informed that patient was critical and was being shifted to higher centre. Later the patient expired.
A complaint was lodged against the treating doctor for medical negligence. After a detailed hearing the court held the doctor responsible for medical negligence. The court specifically mentioned that being a general surgeon the doctor should not have done LSCS since there was no emergency for undertaking LSCS and the patient could have been referred to a gynaecologist for LSCS.
The relevant part of the judgement read
“It is the decision of Disciplinary Committee that both Dr.Nepash Kacker and Dr. Lily Dahiya did not exercise reasonable degree of skill, care and knowledge in the treatment of late Manisha Dahiya, which was expected of reasonably prudent doctor. In fact Dr.Nepash Kacker who is post-graduate in surgery, transgressed into field of a gynaecology by conducting LSCS which was not an emergency; similarly, Dr.Lily Dahiya was neither qualified nor competent to undertake LSCS procedure albeit assist.
Lessons To Be learnt from this case.
1. As Much as Possible we should Stick to our specialty or sub-specialty.
2. We should only do treatment related to other specialty or sub-specialty if there is an emergency situation and that particular specialist is not available or cant be made available without having to wait which may lead to deterioration of patients’ condition.
3. Here the Hon court has held surgeon responsible for medical negligence because he did LSCS when the situation was not emergency situation and the patient could have been referred to gynecologist.