Justice has finally prevailed for Goa’s renowned surgeon Dr Dilip Amonkar. The National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission (NCDRC) has totally absolved Dr Dilip Amonkar of any negligence in the 2010 case of a 17 year old who passed away days after undergoing appendectomy surgery.
A bench of the NCDRC comprising of Dr. S.M.Kantikar and Binoy Kumar in their judgement has set aside the order passed by the Goa State Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission on 27th February 2014 while noting that it had wrongly accepted the statement of a nurse who was neither an operating surgeon nor a Pathologist.
The NCDRC has held that Dr Dilip Amonkar and the two other doctors who had treated the 17 year old had performed their duties with reasonable skill and competence in the interest of the patient and so deserved protection from such litigation while also observing that Dr. Dilip Amonkar had attended to the medical emergency on humanitarian grounds.
The NCDRC in its order has relied on a Judgement of the Supreme Court which held that it was the bounden duty and obligation of the Civil Society to ensure that medical professionals are not unnecessarily harassed or humiliated so that they can perform their professional duties without fear and apprehension.
Over the decades we have all personally witnessed how the concern for the well-being of patients has always been paramount for Dr. Dilip Amonkar, the now retired Head of Surgery at the Goa Medical College.
We owe a huge debt of gratitude to our medical professionals like Dr. Dilip Amonkar who selflessly and with professional expertise go the extra mile to make life changing differences to so many lives.
