Court upholds ruling on compensation for patient

Aya Al Deeb, Staff Reporter

The Abu Dhabi Court of Appeal upheld a ruling by the Court of First Instance obligating a hospital and a doctor to pay Dhs50,000 to a patient with kidney stones in moral compensation for the harm he sustained as a result of a medical error.

Earlier, the patient filed a lawsuit requesting that he be referred to the forensic medicine to explain the injuries and damage that he sustained as a result of a medical error by a hospital and a doctor. He also requested the court to obligate the hospital and doctor to pay financial and moral compensation for the harm he suffered when he underwent an endoscopic surgery to break up a stone in the left kidney at the hospital.

The victim pointed out that the medicine prescribed by the doctor caused excruciating pain to him, adding that he returned to the same hospital on the same day but lost consciousness, and when he woke up he was placed in intensive care for seven days during which his health deteriorated.

The Court of First Instance assigned the Higher Committee for Medical Liability to examine the patient and check the medical procedures taken in this regard which ended with atrophy of the left kidney and renal failure as a result of recurring stones and the accompanying chronic infections.

The doctor performed the surgery and prescribed a medicine to the patient although he knew that the latter was allergic to this medicine. This was considered as negligence that led the patient to breathe with difficulty and necessitated him to be admitted to intensive care.

The Court of First Instance obligated the doctor and the hospital to pay Dhs50,000 to the patient in compensation for the moral damage he sustained as a result of his grief and sorrow over the coma he suffered after taking the wrongly prescribed medicine.

The two parties appealed the ruling and the court rejected both appeals, stating that the ruling issued by the Court of First Instance was in line with the law based on the psychological harm that the patient sustained as a result of wrong medication.

Early this year, the Abu Dhabi Court of First Instance obligated a person to pay another Dhs10,000 in compensation for moral damages caused to him after he insulted him in front of his colleagues and threatened him with imprisonment.

The court rejected obligating the victim to pay compensation, noting that the case papers did not include any evidence of material damage.