A doctor's responsibility for his unintended mistake
21-4-2010 | IslamWeb
Question:
Assalam -u-Alekum Praise to Allah The beneficent the most merciful. I am a doctor and practicing in Intensive Care Unit in a hospital. Alhamdollilah, I have got much skilled in this field. In ICU patients Central Venous Line Is Placed for different purposes. This line is placed in the big veins of the body like Internal Jugular And Subclavian Vein. I am Skilled to pass the Central line. Unfortunately in a very critical patient few days back, during passing Central line his pleura was ruptured ( A common complication). Patient stopped his breaths suddenly. I have given life saving drugs but he did not survived. He had been poor prognosis already declared by the consultant. I have made attempts to save his life at every cost and did not left any stoned unturned when I have seen him in the morning. Due to my struggle his condition got improved but unfortunately due to my own mistake at noon while passing Central line he expired. I have become to much grieved and asked repent from Allah. Please tell me whether I will be forgiven or not?
Answer:
All perfect praise be to Allaah, The Lord of the Worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allaah, and that Muhammad 
is His slave and Messenger.
There are three cases for the mistakes of the doctor as we have already mentioned in detail in Fatwa 87930.
Therefore, if your profession is a doctor and you are skilled in carrying out the operation that you did, then your case is one of the two [that are mentioned in the above-referred Fatwa]: either the second case or the third case, and in both cases, the doctor is not sinful.
As regards being responsible for the mistake, then if the rupture of the pleura happened without you exceeding the usual procedure that you do, then it appears that you are not held responsible for the harm that has occurred. The jurists of the Hanafi School of jurisprudence stated that if the surgical operation was done with the permission (of the patient) and it was usual and not very serious, then the doctor is not held responsible.
However, according to the Shaafi’i School of jurisprudence, if the doctor does what other doctors do for the benefit of the person on whom the operation is carried out according to the specialists in the field, then he is not held responsible and he will be rewarded for his act.
Allaah Knows best.