Family protests in Hyderabad as baby dies at Niloufer Hospital

HYDERABAD: High tension prevailed outside the state-run Niloufer Hospital on Monday evening after a three-month-old baby admitted there died, allegedly due to wrong treatment. Parents and relatives of the infant, M Dhruvan, staged a protest outside the hospital and demanded that the doctor and others "responsible for the child's death be arrested.".
Dhruvan was admitted to Niloufer Hospital on April 6 with high fever and had been undergoing treatment since then. According to his family, the boy's condition suddenly deteriorated on Monday and he passed away around 4.30pm.

With 50-odd family members trying to barge into the hospital to confront the authorities, the Nampally police had to rush a team of personnel to the spot. "A team of cops had to be deployed and senior officials also visited the hospital to bring the situation under control," said Nampally SI Pramod Reddy. "My brother's son has died and you are stopping me instead of arresting those responsible for it," one of them was heard questioning the SI.

On April 18, Nampally police had lodged an FIR against the hospital under Section 336 (negligently endangering life or safety of others) of IPC. As per the complaint, Dhruvan was administered O+ blood on April 15 citing an emergency though his blood group was later confirmed to be A+.

"At that time the doctors checked the blood and told us that it was O+. However, two days later when the blood had to be brought from outside and a recheck was done, they said that the group is A+," stated Mahesh Kumar, the baby's father.

Hours before the baby passed away, the parents had even approached the State Human Rights Commission. They had also reached out to NGO Balala Hakkula Sangham. In the complaint to the NGO, Mahesh said that the authorities told them only on Monday that the child will not survive as he was suffering from cancer.

Health minister Laxma Reddy ordered an inquiry into the incident by a committee of doctors from Nims and MNJ Cancer Hospital. He said the child died of a rare blood cancer-Hemophagocytic Lympho Histocytosis-and that the chances of surviving in such cases is slim. He added this was communicated to the family and that the doctors said that the child did not die due to injecting of O+ blood.