Newborn infant wrongly declared dead by Max Hospital, dies

New Delhi: The premature baby, who was erroneously declared “dead” by Max Hospital in Delhi and was later found to be alive by family members, died during treatment at a nursing home on Wednesday.

The baby was admitted to a private nursing home in Pitampura where he was put on a ventilator and the doctors said that the due to the premature birth, his condition was serious and that his chances of survival slim.

In a case of alleged medical negligence, one of the newlyborn twins was declared dead by Max Hospital in Shalimar Bagh on November 30 and was later found to be alive when the parents were on their way to perform the last rites. The baby was later  admitted to Aggarwal Hospital, Pitampura.

The mother, identified as Varsha, had given birth to pre-mature twins (a boy and a girl). While the girl was stillborn, the baby boy was declared dead later. The hospital wrapped the two bodies in two separate paper bags and then handed over to the family in a polythene bag.

Father of the baby, Ashish Kumar, alleged that the baby acquired severe infection from the incident and that doctors at Max Hospital were responsible for the fate of his child.

The father has refused to take the body of his child, in an act of protest, and demanded that the two doctors allegedly involved in the “medical negligence” in the case be arrested. “I have been wronged. I lived through the death of my daughter, and death of my son, not once but twice. I will not take my son’s body until the two doctors are arrested, so that we get justice,” he said.

Max Hospital had earlier terminated the services of two doctors — Dr A.P. Mehta and Dr Vishal Gupta — who were allegedly involved in the case. However, Dr Sanjeev Gupta of Aggarwal Hospital said that baby was of just 22 weeks and it was difficult for him to survive from the start as he needed too much support. Meanwhile, the Delhi police on Wednesday transferred the case to its Crime Branch for a detailed probe, a senior official said. Max Hospital, in a statement on Wednesday said, “We just learnt of the sad demise of the 23-week preterm baby, who was on ventilator support. Our deepest condolences are with the parents and other family members. While we understand that survival in extreme preterm births is rare, it is always painful for the parents and family. We wish them the strength to cope with their loss”.

The news of the death comes a day after the Delhi government probe team, in it’s preliminary findings, found “the hospital guilty of not having followed prescribed medical norms.”