Max Hospital in Shalimar Bagh, Delhi was earlier served a notice by Delhi Police over the incident (File)
Highlights
- Newborn declared dead by hospital last month found alive later
- Baby died this week; hospital did not follow procedure, found probe
- Hospital, facing anger and protests, had earlier sacked two doctors
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 cancelled 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 Max 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.
Mr Jain said the hospital can continue the treatment of patients who were currently admitted but cannot admit new patients. Patients in the hospital can shift to a different hospital if they wish, he added. Mr Jain said last month they had issued a notice to Max Hospital Shalimar Bagh for problems in the treatment of poor patients as mandated by law.
In a statement, the hospital said, “
We strongly believe that this ruling is harsh and that we have not been given an adequate opportunity to be heard. We believe that even if there is an individual error of judgement, holding the hospital responsible is unfair and will severely limit the ability for patients to access treatment. This will compound the shortage of hospital facilities in the National Capital."
"We will explore all options available to us," it added.
Max 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.