The District Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum, Nashik, has held a diagnostic lab guilty of erroneously reporting that a woman had cancer and ordered it to pay a compensation of Rs 7 lakh.Complainant Ragini Aher, a doctor by profession, had to undergo chemotherapy and later came to know that she had been misdiagnosed by the Super Religare Laboratories (SRL) after she went for a second opinion. In 2009, Aher had frequent bouts of fever and stomach ache, following which she had approached doctors at Curie Manavata Cancer Centre in Nashik.The doctors recommended her to undergo a biopsy. In November 2009, a biopsy was conducted bySRL, which reported that the patient suffered from Hodgkins lymphoma, a cancer of the lymphaticsystem. Aher underwent chemotherapy for two months in 2009. Her health did not improve, andshe approached Tata Memorial Hospital. In its reports, the hospital said, there was conclusiveevidence to say that she had Hodgkins lymphoma. The complainant then went for a third opinion at K L Raheja Hospital, which stated that she did not suffer from cancer.

The complainant moved the consumer court in 2011 against the lab and the Nashik-based hospital for deficiency of service and sought a compensation of Rs 20 lakh.The forum, headed by Milind Sonawane, said that the tests done by SRL and the other two hospitals were conducted using the same biopsy block. The forum said in its judgment, “We believe that there is no truth in the claim that the chemotherapy that the complainant underwent during this period cured her from cancer, and that is why later the test results came negative”. The forum agreed that the lab had shown deficiency in-services and ordered the lab to pay Rs 7 lakh to the complainant. The forum chose not to fine the hospital.