[Speaker 1]: say, we have done a very good job and patient goes home, but somehow, the patient's bad luck or maybe the accident, whatever is the cause, the patient, the fracture does not heal. After three months, six months, whatever the standard practice, it is supposed to heal in few months, and it doesn't heal. And the fracture again goes in non-union. Means the fracture is completely not healed. Patient is going to require maybe one or two more surgeries. Then what is basically, what happens here? How do I prevent the legal liability from that non-union?
[Speaker 2]: See, this was well known to the doctor. And that is the reason why while taking consent, we do intimate to the patient there's a possibilities of non-union in many of the cases or in some types of cases. So if you got a consent paper rightly made where you have already explained prior to signature of the patient, yes, you've got a very great defense. I still remember a case, a beautiful case which came to me exactly of similar domain what you have asked. And in, it was a radial ulna fracture and non-union has lead to the second surgery. And post-second surgery, the guy has went to the advocate for filing a case against the doctor. And since it was not a negligence per se, police has not entered in the people, but the guy has filed a private complaint. And when this case came to me, I was utter surprised when I have seen that ki, the advocate has presented to court not only for medical negligence but also for criminal breach of trust and cheating. In IPC now it is BNS, but in IPC what a 406 and 420. And where court has taken a cognizance and doctor had to go for the bail. When he came to me, I was shocked because there's no question of criminal breach of trust because what patient has said, I've gone to this doctor with all the trust but doctor has broken my trust and taken a 35,000 which was an operation surgery fees and all, which was cheating to them. I said we need to quash this because if this become a precedent, all 100% patient are going to follow the same. So non-union can definitely lead to litigation, but if you've got a document on a place prior to the procedure, you've got a very good defense because with the best of this hand also, it can happen. Accepted by the court.