KARACHI, Sept 1: The Sindh High Court asked the National Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases and two of its associate professors on Monday to submit their replies to a plaint seeking Rs 35.88 million as damages for “causing death of a heart patient by wilful negligence and dereliction of duty”.

Plaintiff Ather Khan Sherwani alleged through Advocates Nasir Maqsood and Aamir Maqsood that his mother, Tehsin Fatima, 61, was subjected to PTMC, a kind of angiography, by Dr Khan Shah Zaman, an NICVD associate professor, at his private patient at a private hospital. The procedure could not be successfully performed and he referred the patient to Dr Akhtar Hussein, another associate professor at the institute, for an open heart surgery for mitral valve replacement. The patient was taken to the Aga Khan University Hospital for pre-surgery tests at a cost of Rs 83,000. An AKUH cardiac surgeon put the chances of success at 97 per cent.

Both the professors, according to the plaintiff, wanted the operation to be performed at a private clinic, but the plaintiff preferred NICVD, where the patient was admitted to a private ward on July 6. Dr Hussien asked the plaintiff to deposit Rs 200,000 as charges and performed the surgery on July 17, declaring it to be “perfectly successful” and free of any post-operative complication. The patient was transferred to the intensive care unit after the operation.

The plaintiff found his mother in a state of agony at the unit. Blood was oozing from the stitches of surgical areas and there was acute swelling on her hands and feet. Ribs were dislocated and the chest was unevenly protruded. The condition worsened with the passage of time but the two professors paid no attention and even transferred her from the ICU to the private ward where she was initially admitted on July 22. Contrary to their assurances, her condition further deteriorated and the duty doctor had to retransfer her to the ICU and put her on a ventilator.

According to the plaintiff, Dr Hussein belatedly realized the gravity of the patient’s condition but attributed it to “a serious attack of pneumonia”.

Dr Nadeem Rizvi, head of chest diseases at the JPMC, who examined the patient as a consultant on July 26, however, ruled out any attack of pneumonia. He prescribed medicines, which improved the patient’s condition and freed her of ventilator support.

The two professors subsequently advised “a simple reoperation for steel wiring”. The patient was again operated upon under general anaesthesia. Surprisingly, the operation was carried out by a junior surgeon, Dr Musharraf, without any consent in his favour by the plaintiff.

Dr Hussein, however, assured the plaintiff that the new operation was “also successful” and that his mother would regain consciousness within four or five hours. The patient remained unconscious and had to be put on a ventilator again. She died on Aug 4 without regaining consciousness.

All the defendants were issued notices for Oct 29.