Friday November 20, 2009
Court rules for defendants over woman’s death after liposuction
KUALA LUMPUR: Two doctors who conducted an abdominal liposuction procedure on diabetic Nik Rosemawati Nik Mohammed five years ago were not negligent in discharging their duty, the High Court ruled.
The plaintiff, Matthew Scott Oakley, lost his suit against Dr George Varughese and Dr Raja Kumar Rajendram after the High Court found he had failed to prove that his wife’s death, two days after the procedure, was due to their negligence.
The court also ordered the plaintiff to pay assessed cost of RM20,000 to each of the defendants.
High Court Judicial Commissioner Harminder Singh Dhaliwal, in his oral judgment, ruled that even if Nik Rosemawati’s injuries were caused by the defendants, it did not necessarily mean negligence.
“My assessment suggests that the demise of the deceased was not negligence on anyone’s part.
“The defendants had gone to great lengths to discharge negligence,” he ruled.
He also said the plaintiff’s contention that the deceased would not have died if she had not gone for the liposuction “was too simplistic a view”.
“Any procedure carries risk, and no medical doctor can guarantee no mishap.”
He added that only in very clear-cut cases, such as when swabs were left in the abdomen, could it be directly pointed out as negligence.
Oakley had filed the suit in 2006 against Dr Varughese, the proprietor of a clinic in Bangsar, and Dr Raja Kumar, a freelance anaesthetist consultant, claiming that they had been negligent while treating his wife.
In his statement of claim, Oakley — who had sought RM520,431 in damages for loss and suffering — said a post-mortem revealed that his wife suffered from extensive internal haemorrhaging and that her cause of death was “acute intra-abdominal injury”. The defendants denied they were negligent.
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