Consent plays an important role in healthcare delivery, patient care and patient safety. While the aspects of consent can differ from case to case, consent taken for diagnostic procedure is not valid for subsequent therapeutic procedure/s.

The patient experienced abdominal pain and hence, consulted the doctor. Consent was taken to perform diagnosis; stone in gall bladder was reported. The doctor performed laparoscopic cholecystectomy, but to no avail.

A reputed hospital in this case was found to be on wrong side of the law. It neither maintained records about unavailability of a critical care injection nor could provide the reason why it was not stocked or for that matter, why was patient’s family not advised to purchase it from outside.

The patient was taken to the hospital for medical care. He was prescribed injection Nirmin, but was administered injection Albumin. Few hours later, he suffered a fatal heart attack.

The patient sustained severe injuries in a train accident. Initially, he was rushed to a hospital where first aid was provided. Further medical care could not be provided as it did not have specialist doctors. The patient was transferred to another hospital.

For strange reasons there was a delay of thirty-two hours before patient’s legs were amputated. In fact, the left leg was amputated eight inches below knee and the right eleven inches. A revision surgery was subsequently performed to correct this mistake.

There is a clear-cut difference between a drug trial and therapeutic trial. Prescribing drug for a therapeutic trial is not against the law as long as requisite tests are performed, as happened in this case.

The patient experienced pain in her right knee. She was a known case of rheumatoid arthritis. The doctor, an experienced orthopaedic surgeon, prescribed Leflunomide for thirty days. Soon after taking the medicine, itching and rashes developed all over patient’s body.

The patient suffered from heart ailments. He was advised to undergo Coronary Artery Bypass Surgery (CABG). However, date of this elective surgery given by the hospital was after a long period, and the patient did not want to wait.

He approached a private hospital where the doctors admitted him and fixed a closer date for surgery. Unfortunately, the date coincided with the peak of second wave of COVID pandemic.

While the patient was admitted and pre-surgery investigations were performed, the hospital refused to operate the patient.

This case poses an important question. How aware are doctors about legal aspects of maintaining patient’s confidentiality? Are they not supposed to furnish patient’s details even to the spouse?

A lady was consulting the doctor for some medical treatment. The doctor issued a certificate that the she was suffering from depression and psychotic disorder to her husband. As it turned out, the couple were in a marital disharmony, seeking divorce.

Patients not adhering to doctors’ advice and then dragging them to court for adverse outcomes is a worrying trend. One way for doctors to avoid any legal mishaps is to maintain medical records, as this case demonstrates.

The patient was in consultation with the gynaecologist for irregular menstruation. The doctor advised USG which reported some anomaly; hence a repeat USG was advised. But the patient didn’t turn up at all.