I used to wonder what happened to a professional after he is found negligent in a court judgment. Is his career prospects and reputations in the profession irretrievably damaged? Does he cease practice, find a new job or become an influencer? Or does he go on with his practice with the benefit of learning from his previous error?

These questions inquire into what happens after the decisions are made and reported so the written judgment itself sheds no light on them.

More interestingly, does the court decision sum up the person’s career – they were that crap throughout – or a one-off or an off-day where everything wrong that could happen happens? I feel sure all of us are familiar with the latter two and are aware of those of the former.

This, too, is not discernible from the written judgment, which is only concerned with whether negligence arose in a specific incident.

I wondered because, touch wood, thus far I have not had the displeasure of dealing with such a claim against me or the firms I practice under. My father’s firm during its existence never had to. He is proud about that. Rightly so. None in my circle of lawyer friends have either. Or maybe they have but don’t talk about it. Which is fair enough. It’s the N-word for lawyers.

My curiousity was sated the time the retina in my right eye tore in late 2019. It was surreal. The top half of my eye was normal but the bottom half looked like it was underwater. Thankfully, my left eye was fine. It was like that for a few days until I dropped by and saw my opthomologist friend at the Tun Hussein Onn Eye Hospital. He took one look and immediately told me he had to refer me to his sifu because my eye problem looked serious.

Soon after, I was referred to Dr Hari Krishnan. His round, quiet but strict look was intensified by his thin elegant glasses. He spoke softly but firmly. When he examined my eye, I heard him mutter, ‘Oh dear.’ My heart sank.

‘What’s the problem doctor?’

‘Wait.’

Both of us pulled back from the eye examination device.

‘The retina in your right eye is torn. It is peeling off the back wall of your eye.’

‘Ah.’

‘That explains the vision you described. Your retina is partially detached at the top. Those watery parts of your vision is where the retina has detached. You need to do surgery immediately. We can schedule you in two hours. You are lucky I am available this afternoon…’

‘Whoa. Whoa. Why do I have to do it now? Can’t it wait? I need to consult my parents and wife. No offence, maybe get a second opinion. This is too sudden.’

‘Mr Fahri,’ Dr Hari raised his voice and stressed each syllable, a touch excessively and looked at me sternly. ‘You should not even be sitting up! You should be lying down face up. That’s how severe the situation is. You have been walking around like that for days. The longer you delay surgery, the likelier you are going to blind.’

‘What?! Why blind?’ Bubbles of fear and anxiousness burst and splatter inside me.

‘The longer you wait, the more retina will detach. If all of it detaches, you will go blind. If you do not reattach the retina as soon as possible, the macula cells will gradually die. They do not regenerate. Your macula processes what you see. Even if a little of them die, you will suffer distortion to your vision. Yours looks bad but it’s still early enough to be saved. That’s why we have to do this now. Do you understand?’

‘Yes. Shit. Okay, fine. Let’s do it.’

‘I am going to schedule you for surgery this afternoon. Now, please sit in the wheelchair. Don’t move your head or body too much. While waiting you can search for ‘retina tear’ so you can understand why this surgery is urgent.’

They left me at a waiting area. I called my wife and parents to tell them the news. Naturally, they became anxious.

‘I find it suspicious that you have to do surgery immediately. What is the hurry? I am concerned they are just doing this for money,’ said my father.

‘So do I but after being advised by the doctor and reading about it on the net, I can see the urgency. The longer I wait, the likelier I will go blind. Apparently, what I have is pretty serious, dad.’

‘I’m going to make some calls. See if you can stall the surgery while we check this doctor out. ‘

I slumped in the wheelchair after I hung up. The thought of diminished vision in my right eye, never mind blindness, was highly distressing. I went through what I call a ‘negative thought spiral’. My mind seem determined to make me miserable by entertaining the worst possibilities I could come up and treat them as certainties. Eventually, my father called me back. He sounded relieved. The doctor checked out. I decided to proceed with the surgery. Two hours later, I was wheeled into the operating theatre.

The doctor conducted a pneumatic retinopexy colloqially known as retina surgery gas bubble. A gas bubble is injected into the eye ball to press the retina against the eye back wall into position so that it can adhere and heal. The gas eventually dissipates and is replaced by the eye’s natural fluids. Such clever people these doctors are!

When I woke up in the hospital room a couple of hours later my family were around me. My right eye was taped up with dressing and an eye guard. I had to sleep at a forty-five degree angle with my face up. I was not to move around too much, vigorously or climb stairs. I was to keep my head still as much as possible. Straining myself pushed up my eye pressure.

I was discharged after two days but returned frequently in the first month for post-surgery follow ups. I thought it was a touch strange how Dr Hari seemed a little reserved and softer after I told him I was a lawyer during our first post-surgery consultation. After that, he warmed up to me and was friendly, pleasant but firm. He did not hesitate to strenly tell me off if I didn’t do as he advised.

After the third month after surgery I returned to work and returned to normal life. I continued my follow ups over the year. I went to another opthomologist to get a second opinion on my doctors handiwork and the assessment was good. He did a good job. I healed well. But because I left it for a few days before I received treatment, some of my macula cells died. Their absence resulted in a small part of my right vision appearing pinched.

Two years later I was invited to speak at a private hospital medical conference about medical consent. While preparing my talk, I naturally read up on decided cases about the issue. I was shocked to come across a medical negligence case involving Dr Hari. It was a Federal Court case. [2018] 3 CLJ 427 for you geeks out there. It’s a leading authority about the duty of a doctor to properly disclose risks to a patient before they undertook surgery.

Not only had Dr Hari failed to disclose that risk to the patient, but he and a consultant anesthetist seriously botched the retina reattachment surgery to their patient’s right eye, which caused him permanent blindness. My consolation was that the indent happened in 1999, twenty years ago. The court awarded two hundred thousand as general damages and one million in aggravated damages. The latter is awarded for the indignity, discomfort or inconvenience of the claimant.

What I read about him in the case was far removed from my experience of the man. In his treatment of me, he was calm, thoughtful, decisive and firm. He wasn’t friendly, but he was pleasant, serious and genuninely concerned. He did a good job with my eye. Another doctor said so, too. It’s been five years now since and my right eye is as well as it could be and I am grateful for that.

It was good to know that notwithstanding the reported case, Dr Hari’s career did not come to an abrupt end and continued to practice. I was heartened to know his reputation was not in complete tatters as a result of that case. There were doctors that still vouched for him, respected him and recommended him.

From my experience, I would like to think that Dr Hari’s case was a one-off or one of those terrible off-days we experience from time to time. I was still seeing him for my annual check ups until this year when he retired. I now have a different doctor. It is a relief to know that a life and career in the profession is still possible despite a damning finding of negligence once a upon a time.

Even though we are professionals, we are human. And as humans, mistakes, errors, some careleness at some point in our career is unavoidable. Shit happens. Piss too. Although I know carelessness and mistakes on our part as a professional causes serious inconvenience, harm and loss to a client, I don’t think a professional should have their career condemned over the occasional mistake. The outright ban of a person from their profession should only be met upon those that are inescapably incompetent, fraudulent or toxic.

And if we are to continue practising after a finding of negligence, let it be by not repeating that mistake again and other similar mistakes. In doing so, we show that we have learned from our previous error. Anything less, would raise a suspicion that our mistake was a symptom of a deeper and more serious lack of competence.