Udupi: The District Consumer Court on Monday ordered a compensation of Rs 13.49 lakh to a senior nurse from Udupi who lost her job in Saudi Arabia due to wrong medical report.
Shivakumar Shettigar, 43, a senior staff nurse at a private hospital in Udupi, was selected as an industrial nurse in the Gulf country's United Medical Response Company in February this year.
During the recruitment process, he was wrongly reported as Hepatitis C positive in a medical examination conducted at the National CT Scanner and Diagnostic Centre in Mangaluru. This led to the disqualification of candidates under the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) medical standards.
Unable to travel abroad due to the wrong medical report, Shettigar underwent follow-up tests at a private laboratory in Manipal and at the District Government Hospital in Udupi, both of which tested negative for Hepatitis C.
Later, Shettigar approached the District Consumer Court against the National City Scanner and Diagnostic Centre in Mangaluru, which had given the wrong report, arguing that the lab's wrong report had caused him not only work but also emotional and financial distress.
The court, after examining the evidence and hearing the arguments and counter arguments of both sides, ruled in Shettigar's favor. The diagnostic centre was directed to pay Rs. 13.49 lakh to the nurse within 45 days and said that it would charge interest at an annual rate of 6 percent.