The patient, an elderly lady in her sixties, experienced abdominal pain. The local doctor referred her to a consulting surgeon. The surgeon prescribed medicines but to no avail. USG was also performed by the surgeon, after which the line of treatment was changed. Again, to no avail.

The patient was diagnosed with viral keratitis. The ophthalmologist prescribed Atrochlor D eye drops to alleviate his ailment. But its result was quite the opposite.

Being steroid, the eye drops worsened patient’s condition. He consulted another doctor who performed tests and confirmed that eyesight in the right eye completely lost due to administration of Atrochlor D.

A pregnant lady was in regular prenatal consultations with three doctors at the hospital – the gynaecologist, anaesthetist and the hospital director who was also a doctor.

At full term, she visited the hospital during which the gynaecologist opined that foetus was not showing any movement. An emergency C-section was performed, after which the patient suffered hypoxia ischemic encephalopathy (HIE) – she slipped into coma.

In yet another unfortunate case of surgical equipment / mop / swab left inside patient’s body, the healthcare providers perhaps may want to seriously contemplate and deliberate the reasons behind this undying trend. Is it lack of OT protocol, or some other due diligence?

The patient underwent C-section at the hospital and delivered a healthy baby boy. The parents were over the moon at the birth of their child.

Their subsequent experience was hellish, to say the least.

The patient was diagnosed with a 9mm stone in upper ureter. The doctor performed lithotripsy to break and displace the stone. The operation was uneventful. Or so it seemed.

The patient consulted the doctor twice thereafter, but he was only prescribed medicines. Fed up of the pain and his condition, the patient consulted another doctor. A USG was performed; it reported a 7mm stone in the ureter!

A lady wanted to attain pregnancy through IVF, hence she consulted a reputed national hospital. The gynaecologist assisted by a team of doctors performed the procedure. However, the patient did not conceive. This IVF, the first of two attempts, was done in the year 2008.

Second IVF was performed in the year 2010. Unfortunately, it also didn’t bear the desired result. A third attempt was planned in the year 2011.

Doctors’ handwriting – the type that could be hardly comprehended – has irked many courts.

This time it was the Cuttack High Court. It had a medico-legal case to adjudicate, and had received post-mortem report written by a doctor, which was unreadable.