New Delhi:
The licence of an upscale Delhi hospital that found itself in the middle of a huge backlash after it incorrectly declared a newborn dead was suspended today. Max Hospital in Shalimar Bagh cannot take new patients for now, Delhi Health Minister Satyendar Jain said. "The negligence in the newborn death case was unacceptable," he said.
On Wednesday, the baby boy found alive after being declared dead along with his still-born twin and handed over to his parents in a plastic bag last month by Max Hospital died after nearly a week of treatment. The twins were being taken for burial when a movement in one of the packages shocked the family. When the wrapping was opened, the baby boy was found breathing and squirming.
The baby was taken to another hospital and placed on life support. A three-member panel asked by the Delhi government to investigate the shocking mistake has found the hospital guilty of not following rules while dealing with newborns. The panel reports that the hospital failed to carry out ECG tracings to check if the child was alive. Electrocardiogram tracing or ECG tracing helps evaluate heartbeats.
The hospital, facing anger and protests, had earlier sacked the two doctors in charge of the twins' case - AP Mehta and Vishal Gupta.
Survival in extreme pre-term births is rare, Max Healthcare said in a statement today, expressing grief over the baby's death.
The other twin, a girl, was declared still-born after birth.
The well-known private hospital had told the parents that the other baby needed critical medical care and had to be kept in an incubator. "The hospital said for three days, it will cost Rs. 1 lakh each and after that, it would cost Rs. 50,000 each day, and he had to be kept for three months," a relative said.
But when the parents were debating the costs, they were told that the infant had died.
Max Hospital in Delhi was earlier served a notice by Delhi Police over the incident (File)
