Abu Dhabi court obliges doctor to pay patient Dhs20,000 for medical error

Abu Dhabi Family Court for Civil and Administrative Cases has ordered a doctor to pay Dhs20,000 in compensation to a patient who suffered from pain in her right hand.

After consulting the doctor, it was decided that she needed a quick surgery and after the operation, she was discharged from the hospital the following day, but she continued to experience pain which prevented her from sleeping and working for several days.

She allegedly returned to the doctor, who prescribed painkillers, but the pain persisted and her insurance stopped covering the cost of those medications, which the doctor advised her to continue taking.

The patient filed a complaint with the Department of Health, providing a report which confirmed a minor medical error in the surgical operation, as the doctor was not specialised and caused her a 2% disability.

In the details, a patient filed a lawsuit against a medical centre and one of its doctors, requesting to be examined by a medical committee to assess her disability.

She demanded that the appellees be jointly obliged to pay her compensation for a 20% disability, not 2%, as she incurred many expenses in addition to the cost of her treatment, which she paid for out of her own pocket, amounting to Dhs100,000, despite her salary being only Dhs5,000.

She also demanded that the appellees be jointly obliged to pay her appropriate compensation for the psychological and moral damages and for preventing her from working for the entire period, amounting to Dhs30,000.

The court ordered the appellees to pay Dhs20,000 to the plaintiff as compensation for the moral damages she incurred, indicating that the documents of the case did not include any evidence to support her suffering from physical damages, and did not prove that she paid the treatment expenses.