HC okays Padma awardee doc’s 1-day jail term

HC okays Padma awardee doc’s 1-day jail term

The Bombay high court upheld a one-day sentence and penalty of Rs50,000, handed down by a magistrate’s court and confirmed by a trial court to Padma Vibhushan awardee Dr Prafulla Desai (80), a senior cancer specialist, who has been found guilty of medical negligence. Justice KU Chandiwal, while dismissing the doctor’s appeal against the trial court’s order, observed: “The findings recorded by both the courts do not call for interference.” The court came down heavily on Dr Desai for advising surgery on cancer patient Leela Singhi and for not attending to her in the operation theatre and still charging fees for his advice. She died after 14 months. Dr Desai failed to exercise reasonable and proper care and avoided to operate the patient himself in spite of the risky decision taken by him. This involves moral delinquency,” the court said. “The violent indifference, deliberate omission, associated ego demonstrated by Dr Desai has put the life of the patient in a miserable situation.” Desai had appealed after he was found guilty last year, of charges levelled against him 24 years ago. In the complaint filed in December 1987, former IAS officer PC Singhi said his wife Leela was admitted to Bombay Hospital with stomach pain. Singhi accused Desai of trying to operate upon his wife in spite of knowing that Dr Earnest Greenberg, a cancer specialist attached to Sloan Kettering Memorial Hospital in New York, had advised against it. The Singhis had earlier consulted Greenberg. Though he took his wife for surgery, Dr Desai refused to do anything when he found out that her stomach was inoperable. He even denied that Leela was admitted as his patient in Bombay Hospital, Singhi said in his complaint. On February 26, 1989, Leela died after suffering continuous pain for nearly 14 months. On September 7, 1988, Singhi wrote to the state top cop seeking action against Desai. But, the Azad Maidan police registered an offence only on May 14, 1991, after the state’s medical council held the oncologist guilty.