MEDICAL
NEGLIGENCE
WITH REFERENCE
TO ANURADHA
SAHA'S
WRONGFUL
DEATH CASE
~Neelanjana Paul
[KLE Society’s Law College, Bangalore]
Negligence is merely the failure to exercise due car. The
three ingredients of negligence are as follows:
1. The defendant owes a duty of care to the plaintiff.
2. The defendant has breached this duty to care
3. The plaintiff has suffered an injury due to this
breach.
Medical negligence is no different. It is well known that
a doctor owes a duty of care to his patients. The duty
can either be a contractual duty or a duty arising out of
tort law. The duty owed by a doctor towards his
patient, in the words of the Supreme Court is to ‘bring
to his task a reasonable degree of skill and knowledge’
and to exercise ‘a reasonable degree of care’ (Laxman
Balkrishna Joshi v. Trimbak Bapu Godbole). A doctor
doesn’t have to ensure that every patient who comes to
him is cured. He only has to ensure that he confers a
reasonable degree of care and competence.
The liability of a doctor arises not when the patient has
suffered any injury, but when the injury has resulted
due to the conduct of the doctors, which has fallen
below that of reasonable care. In other words, the
doctor is not liable for every injury suffered by a
patient. He is liable for only those that are a
consequence of a breach of his duty.
Doctors are revered in India. They are treated next to
God. However, with the recent judgement of Anuradha
Saha’s Medical Negligence case, we are not at the mercy
of a medical establishment that both plays God and
Shylock, trying to extract every pound of flesh from its
patients but remaining completely unaccountable at the
same time.
ANURADHA SAHA