Alleged Medical Negligence Cases: An Autopsy Study

Medical negligence has always been a topic of debate in medical profession. In Medical Negligence cases, while the doctors and the hospitals plead their innocence, the relatives see the negligence as the cause of the patient's damage or death. Sometimes the things take an ugly turn and the relatives resort to violence with the doctors and medical staff. This study was undertaken to analyze the reasons of allegation of Medical Negligence against treating Doctor/Hospital by the relatives after death of the patient and the preventive steps to curb the menace. A total of twenty Medicolegal Autopsy Cases with alleged Medical Negligence were studied. The allegations were found more in age groups comprising of children and adolescent (50%) with a declining trend with increase in age. There was no sex predominance (M:F=1:1).

The super-specialty centers are accused of Medical negligence in 65% cases. The allegation of negligence was against the hospitals with both private and government ownership in a ratio of 1.8:1. The wrong treatment/procedure was the main reason of allegation (45%).The allegations were 75% against Medical disciplines and 25% against surgical disciplines. The authors surmised that lack of good communication and not explaining the prognosis/treatment of the disease of the patient to the relatives properly would have been the main reason of these allegations. The recommendations have been given in the article so as to stop the incidents of violence towards doctors and instill belief with confidence in the patient's relatives towards the treating doctors.