In our country, private healthcare is traditionally more expensive and is considered better than the public one. In practice, however, it all depends on the professionalism and integrity of each individual doctor.
The ILF client’s family has been using the services of one of the largest Kiev clinics for some time. When the client's daughter was diagnosed with bilateral inguinal hernia, they chose to have the surgery at the same medical facility.
The girl has undergone a surgery. According to the doctor, it was successful. However, a few months later the hernia reappeared on one side. The family turned to another doctor, one from a city hospital this time. The experienced surgeon suggested that it could be case of hernia recurrence and advised another surgery. During the procedure, the surgeon found no traces of the previous operation. Naturally, the girl's mother brought her complaints before the clinic where the first surgery had been performed, but the personnel there denied making any mistakes.
At this stage, the client turned to ILF. We tried to reach a peaceful settlement, but negotiations proved unsuccessful – the clinic’s special commission for resolving conflicts and disputes kept insisting that the surgeon had done everything right. After that, ILF lawyers went to court.
ILF lawyer Olga Tarasenko, comparing the protocols of surgeries, noticed discrepancies between the first surgeon’s report and those on similar operations performed by other doctors. This discrepancy consisted of just one word. The surgeon was to place a special mesh on the anterior wall of the abdominal cavity at the end of the operation but did it for the posterior wall. Lawyers appealed to the Bureau of Forensic Medical Examination, and experts confirmed the violation of local protocols, also recorded in the clinic’s documents.
Based on the examination, the court decided that the clinic was in the wrong and obliged it to pay for the surgery as well as compensate non-pecuniary damages to our client.
