The Court of Appeal in Putrajaya on March 12, 2026, dismissed an ophthalmologist’s appeal against a High Court decision that found him liable for medical negligence and ordered him to pay RM1.28 million in damages to a mechanic who permanently lost vision in his left eye.
A three member bench led by Justice Datuk Dr. Choo Kah Sing, alongside Justices Datuk Dr. Shahnaz Sulaiman and Datuk Sri Latifah Mohd Tahar, ruled that the appeal filed by Dr. Lee Mun Toong had no merit.
Delivering the unanimous decision, Justice Dr. Choo said the High Court had made no error in law or fact when accepting the account presented by the mechanic, T Loganathan.
He said the sum awarded was neither excessively high nor manifestly low and therefore there was no reason for the appellate court to interfere with the award.
The court also ordered Dr. Lee Mun Toong to pay RM30,000 in legal costs.
The case dates back to July 6, 2011, when T Loganathan, then 39 years old, sustained an eye injury while working as a mechanic.
He was using a hammer to open a part of an engine compressor when a hard object struck his left eye, causing a serious injury.
Loganathan sought treatment from Dr. Lee Mun Toong, who examined him and carried out a minor surgery to suture the eyelid wound.
The following day, the doctor performed another procedure under general anaesthesia, after which Loganathan’s eye was bandaged.
According to Loganathan, Dr. Lee told him that there was no intraocular foreign body in the injured eye and assured him that the eye would heal completely.
Despite the treatment, Loganathan continued to experience severe pain and blurred vision in the days following the surgery.
After he reported these symptoms, a CT scan was eventually conducted, which revealed that a foreign object was still lodged inside the injured eye.
Loganathan later sought further treatment at Raja Permaisuri Bainun Hospital in Ipoh, where doctors discovered that the eye had already developed an infection.
On July 12, 2011, he was admitted to Selayang Hospital, where surgeons performed an operation to remove the object.
However, the damage had already progressed. Loganathan later developed glaucoma and permanently lost vision in his left eye.
In his defense, Dr. Lee Mun Toong claimed that he had ordered a CT scan on July 8, 2011, to check for a foreign object but alleged that Loganathan refused the scan due to headaches.
He also said the patient had been advised to seek further examination and treatment in Kuala Lumpur.
However, the High Court ruled in July 2023 that Loganathan had successfully proven medical negligence against the ophthalmologist.
High Court Judge Datuk Bhupindar Singh Gurcharan Singh Preet found that Dr Lee failed to order a timely CT scan that could have detected the foreign object earlier and enabled prompt treatment.
The judge also determined that the doctor had fraudulently made post dated entries in the medical records to suggest that a CT scan had been ordered but refused by the patient.
The court concluded that the delay allowed the object to remain in the eye, which led to infection, glaucoma and eventual loss of sight
The High Court awarded Loganathan RM1.28 million in damages, covering several categories of losses and medical expenses.
The compensation included:
RM200,000 in general damages
RM250,000 for glaucoma medication and treatment
RM50,000 for psychiatric illness
RM6,893.79 in special damages
RM1,000 for travelling expenses
RM1,000 for home nursing care
RM22,056.80 for loss of actual income
RM253,920 for partial loss of future income
RM500,000 in aggravated damages
During the appeal hearing, Loganathan’s lawyer Balakrishna Balaravi Pillai argued that the CT scan was only ordered six days after the injury, when the infection had already progressed and complicated the surgery needed to remove the object.
Meanwhile, Fazleeza Azli and Goh Lee Ding represented Dr Lee in the Court of Appeal proceedings.
(Rh/ARC)