PTI
 
London, Feb 28: Nearly 23 years after an Indian surgeon in the National Health Service performed a 'negligent' operation, a patient has won a case against the public health system and is expected to be awarded damages worth millions of pounds.

In a case described as 'one of the greatest scandals in the history of NHS', the operation to boost oxygen levels of an infant was performed by Dr Janardan Dhasmana in May 1985.

Dhasmana, who qualified from the Lucknow University in 1964, is believed to be practising in India currently.

The amount of damages to be awarded to the patient, Marianna Telles, will be assessed at a later date, but her solicitor in the High Court claimed on Wednesday that it could run into 'several million pounds'.

Telles' family claimed that her problems with communication and mobility stemmed from May 1985, after she underwent a shunt operation as a two day-old infant to try to improve her oxygen levels at the Bristol Royal Infirmary.

Ruling against South West Strategic Health Authority, which denied liability, the judge said that on the balance of probabilities, he was satisfied that Telles suffered damage throughout the period from 1 am on May six, 1985, before the first shunt operation, to a second shunt operation, because of hypoxia (deficiency in the amount of oxygen reaching body tissues).

Telles was in good condition at her birth at the Royal Gwent Hospital in Newport but appeared blue within 24 hours and was transferred to nearby Bristol.