COVID-19 deaths have two companions- Fate & Medical Negligence

By Legal Wires 11 Minutes Read

Nowadays, masks, sanitizers & face shields are the new normal. COVID-19 has brought a drastic effect on the lives of people as well as the economy of the whole country. In such a pandemic situation, one is expected not to be negligent & be serious about the situation. But as we can observe that the cases are nowhere getting down, the situation is worsening day by day. Despite lockdown & quarantine, people deliberately went out and got positive &, if not lucky, then died. This is one situation of negligence on the part of a victim, but what if the negligence is done by the people who cannot be negligent in such a situation, i.e., doctors & medical professionals.

In the law of negligence, professionals such as lawyers, doctors, architects, etc. are said to possess some special skills. Any task which is required to be performed by special skills people would generally be admitted or undertaken to be performed only if the person possesses the requisite skill for performing that task.

Medical negligence is an act recklessly done by a person resulting in foreseeable damages to the other.

In the list of Medical negligence, a recent case of 47 years old police inspector is being marked, who was posted SHO Allahaganj in UP’s Shahjahanpur & died in Lucknow after being tested positive for COVID-19 in the wee hours, i.e., early morning of Thursday. Deceased Indrajeet Singh Bhadauriya was tested negative thrice for COVID-19 in Shahjahanpur, which put his friends and family members in a state of shock. Superintendent of Police, Shahjahanpur, S Anand stated that the deceased returned from Meerut training school on July 23 & a day after that, he complained of cold, clogging, and heavy breathing. He further said that they immediately got him tested for COVID -19, but the hospital tested him negative & further asked to take rest . his health did not get relief, and the symptoms continued for which they again got him tested for COVID-19 & was tested negative again. Later, a third test for the virus was done again and again tested negative, but cold, and cough continued.

On August 1, at Apollo hospital, he tested positive for COVID-19 in Lucknow while getting admitted for treatment of cold, cough & congestion. According to the district police chief, he was further shifted to Mayo, another private hospital & was also recovering, but on August 4, his condition got worsening which led to his death after keeping him on a ventilator for a day. The doctors said that the deceased had a respiratory breakdown while his lungs were entirely damaged. He was a patient of diabetes as well.

So from the above case, who was at fault the inspector who went thrice to hospital for a checkup or the doctors who tested him negative all three times when he was suffering from COVID-19?

Involvement of Medical Negligence – Negligence is an offense under tort, IPC, Indian Contracts Act, Consumer Protection Act, and many more. A patient visiting a doctor surely expects the doctor to be an expert in his job and assumes that he/she will be careful & not be negligent in his act. Knowing all these facts, still, medical negligence resulted in many deaths as well as adverse results to the patient’s heath. Mistakes/Negligence in the medical profession could lead to minimal injuries or some serious injuries that may even cause death that happened with the deceased Late. Indrajeet Singh Bhadauriya. Under consumer protection laws, medical negligence is another form of deficiency in the performance of duty. Doctors are expected to bring out a very high degree of skill & care; hence laws imposing liability on medical practitioners have been customized to agree to the practitioner’s maximum possible protection.
A patient expects the doctor to be knowledgeable about the latest advances & technologies in his specific field & educate him about his diagnosis and prognosis and tell the best possible solution to his health issue. In short, he expects to be healed. But for millions of people, what they expect is far from what they receive as happened with the deceased in the instant case. Sections 52, 80, 81, 83, 88, 90, 91, 92 304-A, 337 and 338 of IPC ,1860 contain the laws of medical negligence/malpractice in India. The act of medical malpractice was carried under the Consumer Protection Act, 1986, by the landmark case of the Indian Medical Association vs. V. P. Shantha & Ors.

It must be noted that The liability of the doctor cannot be invoked now and then and he can’t be held liable just because something has gone wrong, but here in the case of the inspector the negligence happened thrice, if they would have done their duty correctly then it might not have resulted in his death.

Aarogya Setu App- AAROGYA SETU, i.e., a link for deliverance from disease, is a digital service platform, chiefly a mobile application, settled by the Government of India. Its main goal is to deal with COVID-19 related health issues with the people of India. It is intended to enhance the initiatives of the Government of India by accomplishing the people of their latent menace of COVID-19 infection & the most excellent practice to be followed to sojourn healthy, as well as providing them relevant & curated medical advisories about the COVID- 19 pandemics. The National Informatics Centre developed it under the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology. It is a tracking app that uses the GPS feature of Smartphones and Bluetooth features to trace the coronavirus infection. But according to a database kept by MIT Technology Review, Aarogya Setu, India’s contact-tracking app to fight COVID-19, puts significant risks to the privacy of the customer compared to related apps in other countries. Also, sometimes it shows a wrong analysis of being positive when one is not.These problems need to be rectified to reduce the death ratio of the country.
Facilities given to the police personnel / COVID warriors-The dark face of COVID-19 has witnessed the severe impact on the almost all factors upon which a country develops. In this hard time, the police personnel & the Corona warriors are playing a vital role. They are giving their level best to reduce the spread as much as possible, police did the lathi charge to keep the ignorant people in the house to save their life, doctors are working day and night and are distancing their family to keep everyone alive, safe and sound, but it is recorded that these people who are acting as a shield are the ones who are at a higher risk of getting contaminated. The government is providing them face shields, masks, sanitizer, but still, they are getting contaminated. Therefore they need special treatment for if they are getting positive, some states police personnel complained of getting salary cut -off. This should not be happening; they must be given incentives for risking their lives to save ours. Witnessing the spread of infection further amongst the frontline corona warriors, Delhi Police will deliver its personnel separate special health care services in chosen private hospitals to give them the best treatment and care in times of emergencies. There are many proposals to get passed, but still, they are not. Hence the government must take initiatives for the warriors & personnel who look for us 24*7.

Medicine, which is one of the noblest professions, involves setting a sphere that can help the victims of various diseases. This article does not intend to allege doctors as negligent or irresponsible or incompetent, they are prudent, but while performing the duty, it requires a lot of patience and care, which many fail to perform towards the patient. Deceased Indrajeet Singh Bhadauriya had left behind his wife- Kanchan Singh, son- Vishal and a daughter -Vaishali. Because of medical negligence, the family incurred a significant loss, which cannot be compensated. The situation is n good these days, and negligence at this time cannot be afforded.