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Durban – A patient’s widow has accused an uMhlanga doctor of misdiagnosing her husband, keeping inadequate clinical notes of his treatment, not noting his medical history and failing to admit him to hospital for further observation.
The accusations against Dr Sujatha Hariparsad, of Netcare Umhlanga Hospital, were heard in a Health Professions Council hearing in uMhlanga on Monday. He has pleaded not guilty. He treated Ravine Parmanand, 40, in 2008, one day before he died of a suspected heart attack.
Pamela Parmanand is seeking legal action against Hariparsad, who, she alleges, misdiagnosed her husband.
On Monday, a Dr S Maharaj, who worked in the trauma unit at the Mount Edgecombe Hospital where Parmanand was brought after he collapsed, testified how
he tried to revive him the day after he was treated and discharged from hospital by Hariparsad.
Maharaj told the hearing that Parmanand did not show any “vital signs” when he was brought in by paramedics.
“We did cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and terminated it after 35 minutes. We even tried to defibrillate him,” he said. This is when electrical energy is administered to a stopped heart to get it beating again.
“CPR was done at least four times, but he was dead on arrival,” Maharaj said.
Attorney Altus Janse van Rensburg, acting for Hariparsad, questioned Maharaj’s conclusion that Parmanand had died of “natural causes”.
Maharaj said Pamela Parmanand had told him that her husband had a history of chest pain.
Van Rensburg then asked Maharaj how he reached his conclusion, based on Pamela Parmanand’s information.
“Based on the history told by his wife and my examination, the cause was a heart attack,” said Maharaj.
Maharaj conceded that a post-mortem was not done, and there was a possibility the cause of death may not have been a heart attack.
Under cross-examination by advocate Meshack Mapholisa, Maharaj said it was normal for doctors in “certain instances” to determine a patient’s death through receiving information from a relative.
Mapholisa called cardiologist Dr Rodney Mattison after Dr Ravinkumar Ramdass, who was expected to give an expert’s testimony, did not show up. Mattison testified he had not been given all the necessary documents, but agreed with Maharaj that information from family was important.
The Mercury
