Parents billed Rs 16 lakh for 7-year-old’s dengue treatment, now Medanta on govt’s radar

GURUGRAM: Around a month after dengue claimed the life of a seven -year-old boy referred to Delhi’s Ram Manohar Lohia (RML) hospital by

Medanta

hospital, the victim’s father registered complaints with police and the health department on Friday, accusing the Gurgaon private hospital of overcharging for the treatment. Gopendra Singh Parmar, an

LIC

agent based in Rajasthan’s Dhaulpur district, alleged that he had to cough up Rs 15.88 lakh for his son’s treatment at Medanta hospital.

Seven-year-old Saurya Pratap, according to Parmar, was diagnosed with dengue at a hospital in Dhaulpur on October 28. As his condition didn’t improve, the family took him to another hospital in Dhaulpur. “However, when his condition deteriorated further, he was in Dhaulpur. He was suffering from severe dengue with multiple organ dysfunction. Saurya underwent treatment at Medanta hospital for 22 days,” Parmar told TOI. The child later died in Delhi’s Ram Manohar Lohia (RML) hospital.

Parmar claimed that he borrowed money from his relatives and even mortgaged his property to pay the hefty treatment cost demanded by the Gurgaon hospital.

“As an LIC agent, I do not earn more than Rs 500 a day. You can imagine how we had struggled to arrange the money,” said Parmar.

He further said the family decided to shift Saurya to RML hospital on November 20 since there was no improvement in his condition, and the bill was running high. Saurya was critical at the time of admission to RML, and died on November 22, two days after being admitted to the Delhi hospital.

On Friday, Parmar filed a police complaint at Gurgaon’s Sadar police station against the hospital management, chairman of department of pediatrics Dr Sunit Singhi, Dr Maninder Dhaliwal, Dr

Veena Raghunathan

and other supporting members of their team. The family accused the hospital authorities of “murder, forgery, cheating and extortion”.

Inspector Vijay Kumar, SHO, Sadar police station, said police would examine all medical records and seek a report from the health department. “An action would be taken if the hospital authorities had violated any rules,” he said.

A copy of the complaint was also given to the health department. Gurgaon’s chief medical officer Dr BK Rajora said, “We have received the complaint, and will take necessary action as per the protocol.”

When contacted, Medanta hospital authorities said they would cooperate with police and the health department. “Shaurya was admitted with dengue shock syndrome and other complications, which were treated adequately by doctors at Medanta-The Medicity. We are not aware of any complaint in this regard.

“However, we will fully cooperate with any investigating agency,” Dr

AK Dubey

, medical superintendent, Medanta-The Medicity.

The Haryana health department had indicted Fortis hospital in Gurgaon of medical protocol in the death of seven-year-old Adya. The girl had died after a bout of dengue in September.


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