The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : Laboratory pulled up for giving wrong report to patient

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Saturday, Mar 29, 2008
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Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

Laboratory pulled up for giving wrong report to patient

Staff Reporter

A pregnant woman was declared HIV positive

BANGALORE: The Karnataka State Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission has directed a laboratory from K.R. Pet in Mandya district to pay compensation for having given a wrong report to a pregnant woman. The report said that she was HIV positive.

Taking the laboratory to task, Commission president Chandrashekariah said: “If a person comes to know that he or she is HIV positive, he or she will lose interest in life and may even think of committing suicide.” The woman might have suffered silently until she came to know that the report was false, the judgment indicated.

Meenakshi, a resident of Lingapura village in K.R. Pet, was sent by a doctor to Manjunath Pathology Laboratory for a blood test.

The laboratory conducted the “Elisa” test and reported that she was HIV positive. A shocked Meenakshi then went to Channarayapatna Government Hospital, where the blood test was done once again. There the doctor said that she was not HIV positive.

Meenakshi filed a complaint against the laboratory before the Mandya District Consumer Redressal Forum and claimed compensation for deficiency in service.

The District Forum dismissed the complaint stating that the test was conducted by the laboratory in accordance with the prescribed procedure.

Setting aside the order, the State Commission noted that the case here was not about the procedure followed by the result of the tests.

When a similar test performed in a government hospital disclosed that Meenakshi was not HIV positive “the irresistible conclusion that can be drawn is that the laboratory has issued a wrong report,” the judgment said.

The State Commission has directed the laboratory to pay Rs. 25,000 within three months. If it fails to make the payment, the laboratory has to pay interest at the rate of 6 per cent a year on the compensation amount.

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