Because of the error of the attending physician

50 thousand dirhams in compensation for a patient who lost her teeth

The Al Ain Court of Appeal upheld a judgment of the Court of First Instance requiring a medical center for dental treatment to pay a patient 50,000 dirhams in compensation for the material, psychological and moral damages resulting from the loss of her teeth, due to the fault of the treating doctor.

In the details, a woman filed a lawsuit against the center demanding that he be obligated to pay her compensation for material and moral damages while obliging him to pay fees and expenses of the case, noting that during her visit to the defendant center, in order to clean her teeth, one of the center's doctors told her that her teeth needed to be fitted with a lens. Lenses (cosmetic veneers), so she agreed to install them and paid more than 25 thousand dirhams, but after a few days, she felt pain in her teeth and her inability to eat, so she went to the center, but the attending physician increased her suffering by undertaking repairs that led to the plaintiff losing her teeth and falling out.

The plaintiff indicated that, after taking x-rays, it was found that the doctor of the defendant center had made a mistake in installing contact lenses, and the medical error had caused material and moral damage to the plaintiff, which was distorting her appearance and losing the benefit of the teeth in addition to psychological pain and incurring treatment expenses, while The defendant's center submitted a reply memorandum in which he denied the mistake of the doctor affiliated with him and sought the ruling to reject the case, and he also argued that the case was not accepted for filing it prematurely and without the way prescribed by the law for not presenting the plaintiff to the competent committee before resorting to the court.

For its part, the Supreme Committee for Medical Liability, delegated by the court of first instance, confirmed in its report that it was unable to reach a final decision in the case, as it was unable to verify the history of the case and the treatment provided for the inability of the parties to provide the supporting documents, and upon examination of the patient. It was found that she had treated her teeth by another clinic after she stopped treatment in the defendant’s clinic, which did not enable the committee to verify whether there was a medical error in the treatment provided previously.

The court of first instance decided to oblige the defendant center to pay the plaintiff an amount of 50 thousand dirhams, and also obligated him to pay fees and expenses and 500 dirhams in return for attorneys' fees, and established its ruling that the defendant center did not submit documents related to the plaintiff’s case to the medical committee, which hindered her expressing the medical and technical opinion on the matter. In addition, the plaintiff submitted medical reports from two dental treatment centers proving that the treatments provided by the defendant center were badly done and caused many damages to the plaintiff.

The judiciary did not gain acceptance with the defendant, so he appealed him and reproached the appealed judgment against the violation of his rights and the violation of the law and the documents, as the Medical Liability Committee concluded that it was unable to reach a final decision in the case, that is, it was unable to determine whether there was a medical error or not, which confirms that the lawsuit The case was filed prematurely, indicating that the appealed judgment was based on two reports issued by two competing medical facilities, and it is not within their jurisdiction to determine whether there is a medical error or not, and he demanded that the case be rejected and that the appellant be charged the fees, expenses and attorney fees.

For its part, the Court of Appeal issued a ruling during the hearing of the case to return the Office of the Medical Responsibility Committee in Abu Dhabi to prepare a supplementary report and indicate the extent to which the physician affiliated with the appealed center committed a medical error or not, the degree of this error, the resulting damages if any, and the extent of the respondent's participation, positively or negatively, in its occurrence. The supplementary report of the committee showed that the medical procedures and treatment provided to the appellant by the center of the appellant were not compatible with the generally accepted medical standards, as the attending physician did not examine the teeth well before starting the treatment, and the medical file of the patient did not document the treatment procedures that he had taken in detail. He also performed a radical treatment of natural teeth without a medical reason for this procedure, which was considered by the committee to be a medical error on the part of the treating physician.

The committee added that complications occurred to the patient due to the radical treatment carried out by the attending physician, such as constant pain and bleeding of the gums and loss of vitality of the teeth that had undergone radical treatment, which reduces their age and strength in the future, so the court decided to accept the appeal in form, reject it as a matter, and uphold the appealed judgment and obligate the appellant to pay fees and expenses.

• The patient paid 25,000 dirhams to get her teeth done, but after days she felt pain and the inability to eat.

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