Plastic Surgeon Medical Liability in Abu Dhabi – Dubai UAE

Plastic Surgeon Medical Liability in Abu Dhabi – Dubai UAE

In a recent ruling, Abu Dhabi Court affirmed the medical responsibility of plastic surgeons for the operations they perform, as it ruled that according to Articles 282 and 291 of the Civil Transactions Law, the injured person may claim for compensation from the perpetrator of the harmful act. When there is more than one responsible person, each one is questioned according to his share. It is established as well that even if the doctor is not abided, through a contract concluded between him and his patient, by healing the patient or by success of the operation he performs because the doctor’s commitment is not an obligation to achieve a result but rather an obligation to give care. However, the care required from him needs sincere and vigilant efforts for his patient that are consistent – in other than exceptional circumstances – with the established principles of medicine. The doctor shall be questioned for every failure in his medical career that does not occur by an attentive doctor at his professional level, in the same external circumstances that surrounded the responsible doctor.

Even though the plastic surgeon, like other doctors, does not guarantee the success of the operation but the care required from him is more than the other cases of surgery, considering that the plastic surgery does not intend to cure the patient from a disease in his body, but rather to repair his defects in a way that does not endanger his life and the doctor’s deviation from performing this duty is considered a mistake that necessitates his responsibility for the harm that befalls the patient as long as this mistake has interfered with what leads to the harm, and when determining his responsibility; the productive cause of the damage must be known, not the accidental reason which does not cause this damage in nature.

Whereas this and it is proven from the review of the report of the delegated medical committee that it concluded in its report that the Appellee had been injured in the accident, and a medical examination was performed for him by the plastic consultant in the Orthopedics Department. It was found that he had hit the left lower limb and had swelling and enlargement of the left leg which required placing a fascia, and was surgically treated on 12/4/2011 where the left leg was covered by a split skin flap, but the skin graft was not placed in a good way, and then the patient was treated surgically again on 24/4/2011.

The patient complains of a loss of feeling in the skin graft area, and the patient has a final total disability rate of 44%. The Appellee requested compensation for his injury as a result of the accident, which is ((a minor wound in the right lower leg)) and the Appellant asserted that the plastic surgery doctor performed the operation in a wrong way, which led to other surgeries to correct the mistake of the plastic surgeon who contributed to the aggravation of the harm and thus be responsible for his share in the harm. The court of the appealed ruling did not consider that defense and did not consider the report of the medical committee to clarify the procedures that were carried out and mentioned in the medical file and the plastic operations performed on the Appellee and the extent of its conformity with the principles of the profession for exerting the due care to cure the patient, and whether it left deformities and permanent disability and its percent estimated by the medical committee as 44%, and therefore if this is proven, the doctor is responsible for the percentage of his contribution to causing the harm.

Mohamed Mahmoud Al Marzooqi law firm

Attorney / Mohamed Al Marzooqi
Mohamed Al Marzooqi advocates & Consultancy
Lawyer in Abu Dhabi, Dubai – UAE