Diagnosing someone as HIV+ is bad.
Diagnosing someone as HIV+ wrongly is…you tell me!
One of the worst instances of medical
negligence surfaced in New Delhi where a diagnostic laboratory
misdiagnosed a person as HIV+.
Horrifying ? You bet.
But this is just the beginning of the story.
As if the horror of the misdiagnosis and
trauma of being an HIV+, however briefly was not enough, this
particular consumer also lost an employment opportunity abroad because
of the diagnosis. The mis-diagnosis had happened when the consumer
underwent mandatory fitness tests for a job in Saudi Arabia.
A complaint was filed with the consumer
forum and the South West District Consumer Dispute Redressal Forum held
that if the test conducted by Paramount Diagnostic Center had to be
re-run after four to six weeks to confirm it then the lab could not have
reported him unfit on the basis of their (initial) findings… Their
haste in declaring him unfit immediately after the test is not only
negligent but also rash on their part.
The forum also noted that Paramount`s
report had been proved “false” by all subsequent tests including one by
the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) which was conducted
within two weeks of the “faulty” report. The forum ordered the
diagnostic center to pay Rs 2.05 lakh as damages along with Rs.5000 as
litigation cost to a 25-year-old youth for wrongly diagnosing him as
HIV positive and depriving him of an employment opportunity abroad.
