Vancouver, July 9 - An Indian-Canadian man has been awarded $5 million (Rs.20 crore) by a court for medical negligence by a local hospital that left him incapacitated for life.

Shawn Kahlon, 41, and his wife Michelle of Richmond on the outskirts of Vancouver were granted the record compensation for the careless way in which he was treated by the Vancouver Coastal Health Authority and UBC Hospital almost a decade ago.

Kahlon, then a 32-year-old teacher, had reported lower-back pain in 1999. As the pain persisted, his doctor sent him to a radiologist to undergo a CT scan to ascertain its cause.

When the first scan showed some abnormalities, the radiologist asked Kahlon to come again for a follow-up scan.

He never returned for the second CT scan, thinking that the pain will go way on its own. But actually he was suffering from spinal tuberculosis which was about to affect his brain.

The radiologist's office failed to notify him.