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Journalism of Courage
A man wrongly diagnosed as being HIV positive by a diagnostic centre and shunned by society, including government doctors, has knocked the doors of the Supreme Court for compensation.
A Bench headed by Justice B N Aggrawal has issued notices seeking replies from a doctor couple, Virendera Mahla and Sharda Mahla, running a medical centre for wrongly diagnosing the victim’s ailment.
The apex court issued the notices after the victim Susheel Kumar, an illiterate villager from the Bardwa village of Rajasthan’s Deedwana district, appealed against the State Consumer Commission’s order quashing the Rs 2 lakh compensation awarded to him by the District Forum.
According to the appeal filed through counsel Aishwaraya Bhati, the victim was initially admitted at the couple’s Ruchika Diagnosis and Research Centre, Sikar, on September 12, 2002 for an appendicitis operation.
Though discharged after the operation, Kumar continued to suffer from pain in the abdomen and was advised pain killers for two months by the doctors.
He was subsequently subjected to certain tests in their laboratory and on December 3, 2002 he was declared as being HIV positive, the appeal said.
