Probe begins after hospital declares alive newborn dead

NEW DELHI: The Delhi Medical Council is probing charges of negligence by a private hospital that allegedly declared dead a newborn who was alive, an incident that has sparked outrage. The baby was one among twins delivered at Max Hospital, Shalimar Bagh, Thursday. While one was still born, doctors declared the other dead a few hours later, the family said. However, they discovered one was alive while taking them for burial.

“Based on the reports where a newborn baby was declared dead along with his stillborn twin and handed over to his parents at Max Hospital Shalimar Bagh, Delhi, Medical Council has taken co g nisance of the case and suo mo to decided to examine the case,” the council said in a statement.

State health minister Sat yend ra Jain has asked his department to submit a preliminary report on the incident within 72 hours and a final report by next week.

Union health minister JP N add a also directed the state government to look into the matter.

Praveen Kumar, the maternal grandfather of the infants, said his daughter Var shaw as admitted to the hospital on Tuesday .“Two days later, following a C-Section delivery at 7.30pm, she first delivered a boy and then a girl 12 minutes later ,” he said. Doctors told the family that the two had passed away and they handed the bodies in two packets. “When we were on our way for the last rites, we noticed movement in one of the packets... We opened it and found the boy breathing. He was taken to another hospital in Pitam Pura where he was admitted and is under treatment ,” said Kumar. HTC