Indian-Canadian victim of medical negligence gets $5 mn

Shawn Kahlon, 41, and his wife Michelle of Richmond on the outskirts of Vancouver were granted the record compensation for the careless way in which he was treated by the Vancouver Coastal Health Authority and UBC Hospital almost a decade ago.

Kahlon, then a 32-year-old teacher, had reported lower-back pain in 1999. As the pain persisted, his doctor sent him to a radiologist to undergo a CT scan to ascertain its cause.

When the first scan showed some abnormalities, the radiologist asked Kahlon to come again for a follow-up scan.

He never returned for the second CT scan, thinking that the pain will go way on its own. But actually he was suffering from spinal tuberculosis which was about to affect his brain.

The radiologist’s office failed to notify him. Finally after one year when the files from his first CT scan were found, Kahlon was rushed to hospital.

He was diagnosed with TB meningitis which takes months to be treated. Kahlon’s condition deteriorated, leaving him with cognitive impairment for life.

Granting him the record compensation on Wednesday, the provincial British Columbia Supreme Court said negligence in procedures led to a one-year delay in Kahlon’s treatment.

The court said: "Had the films been reported on at the time of the CT scan or within the several months following, it would have led to a chain of inquiry which would have resulted in a diagnosis of spinal TB meningitis.

"Treatment would have been given and Mr. Kahlon would have recovered without consequence."

The court said Kahlon was also 30 percent liable for his medical negligence by not reporting for the second scan. But because of his impairment, Kahlon could not testify before the court.