KATHMANDU, OCTOBER 18

Patan High Court has upheld Nepal Medical Council's decision to suspend cardiologist Rishi Khatri's licence for one year.

A division bench of Judge Balendra Rupakheti and Rupesh Dhakal upheld the NMC decision in a case filed by Dr Khatri against NMC.

The NMC held Dr Khatri responsible for medical negligence that resulted in the death of senior Captain of Nepal Airlines Rakesh JB Rana and decided to suspend Khatri's licence for one year. NMC had also ordered Khatri to receive one year's training before resuming practice as a cardiologist. The NMC held Khatri responsible for medical negligence as he had certified on 22 November 2019 that Rana's treadmill test that predicts an impending heart attack as negative whereas it was positive.

Captain Rana's wife Pushpa had lodged a complaint with NMC claiming that Khatri's negligence gave her husband false confidence that led to his death. The NMC decided to suspend Khatri's licence on 9 July 2021 against which Khatri filed an appeal at the Patan High Court on 2 December 2021.

Rana was admitted to HAMS, a Kathmandu-based hospital, on November 24 after suffering a massive heart attack. He had felt uneasy while preparing to command an NAC flight to the Malaysian capital the same night. He was pronounced dead at HAMS the next day.

Rana's death had laid bare the state of aviation safety in Nepal, running contrary to the claims of significant improvements in Nepali skies made by the head honchos of the aviation regulatory body.

TMT and ECHO records of Captain Rana's tests conducted in 2019 revealed he was likely to suffer a heart attack. This should have alerted the concerned aero-medical physician, leading to suspension of the pilot's medical wellness certificate, but the physician failed to understand the risk.

Rana's family members said if he had been alerted on time of his health condition, his death would have been prevented.

Advocate Daksha Chhetri, the legal counsel of the victim's wife Pushpa said the High Court's verdict had strengthened a compensation case filed by his client in Kathmandu District Court. Pushpa has claimed compensation of Rs 7.2 million from cardiologist Khatri. In the compensation claim, Pushpa had calculated what Rana earned in salary as a pilot of NAC.

A version of this article appears in the print on October 19 2022 of The Himalayan Times.