He came home to look better.
He went back barely recognizable.

A 60-year-old man, diabetic and long-settled abroad, walked into a Hyderabad clinic for a hair transplant. Promises were made. Confidence was sold. A standard follicular unit extraction (FUE) was scheduled.

But within hours of the procedure, his face swelled.
His eyelids shut. His throat closed up.
His body screamed sepsis.

He returned to the clinic the next morning — unable to breathe, with his sugar levels sky-high and swelling so severe he couldn’t open his eyes. The response? “Normal post-op reaction,” they said.

That night, he was admitted to a corporate hospital in critical condition.

Diagnosis: Necrotising Fasciitis — a flesh-eating infection with a high mortality rate.

Over the next few weeks, he went through 12 debridements, 3 reconstructive surgeries, skin grafts, tracheostomy, and — eventually — lost his right eye. What began as cosmetic surgery ended in catastrophic disfigurement.

But the legal twist? The clinic wasn’t held liable.

Here’s what the Commission actually observed — and what every doctor must note:

• No evidence of negligence. The court acknowledged the post-op care may not have been ideal, but there was no direct proof that the infection originated at the transplant site.
• Patient’s diabetes was poorly controlled. His blood sugar was over 250 mg/dL before surgery — but he failed to inform the clinic of his full history.
• Infections like this can occur spontaneously, even without breach of protocol.
• The Commission concluded this was an unfortunate outcome, not medical negligence.

The patient had sued for nearly ?10 crore. The court awarded nothing.

For doctors, the case reinforces a brutal truth:
Even if the outcome is tragic, courts still need causation, not just correlation. And patients’ incomplete disclosures can shift the entire legal balance.

Still, one wonders — could better pre-op screening have flagged the risk? Could early escalation have changed the ending?

Medicine isn’t theatre. But this one had it all — drama, damage, and no villain in sight.

Source : Order pronounced by National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission on 6th March, 2024.