Family refuses to accept Deepa Maurya’s body, seeks inquiry
A Bhandup-based man has refused to accept the body of his wife, who died on Wednesday afternoon in Fortis hospital, Mulund. The man claims that his wife died due to negligence by doctors and has accordingly sought a FIR against the doctors.
Deepa Maurya had delivered a baby boy on October 16 after undergoing caesarean (C-section) surgery at Shrenik Maternity Home, Bhandup. Nearly 10 days after her delivery, she died due to dengue in Fortis Hospital, where she was shifted by the maternity home.
The family has alleged that the maternity home where Deepa was initially admitted, could not diagnose her condition early which resulted in a delay in treatment.
Doctors from Fortis Hospital said that Deepa was admitted in the intensive care unit of the hospital on October 17 with a platelet count below 22,000 and suffered multiple organ failure.
“The patient was admitted with complaints of breathlessness for the past two days which increased on October 17. She had a high-grade fever for more than three to four days prior to the admission with a history of tuberculosis two years ago,” reads the letter issued by Dr Atul Ganatra, gynecologist and obstetrician at Fortis Hospital.
Dr Ganatra was unavailable to speak due to poor health on Wednesday and his assistant said that he would remain unavailable for a comment.
Lalji Maurya, Deepa’s brother-in-law, said that she had severe abdominal pain and was admitted to the Shrenik Hospital on October 12. However, after being discharged, the family returned to the hospital on October 15 with complaints of high-grade fever. The doctors allegedly said that it’s a normal fever and refused to do any tests or even admit her.
“We took her to the hospital on October 16 the next day when she was in extreme labour pain and doctors, decided to do a caesarean delivery immediately. Five hours after the surgery they said they need to shift both the mother and child to tertiary care facilities because her condition has deteriorated,” said Lalji.
The family said that they are unable to pay Rs 9.95 lakh bill of Fortis Hospital and had initially refused to admit Deepa there since they suspected the towering bills.
The couple’s first child was also diagnosed with dengue, through placenta infection and was shifted to Panchasheel Hospital of Mulund. Dr K Mohan, from the hospital, said that the child was on a ventilator till Tuesday.
“It was the first time we were handling a child with placenta transmission of dengue. Patient’s platelet count was about 74000 and its condition was critical. We hope that the condition will get better in a day or two,” Dr Mohan added.
A senior doctor of Fortis hospital said “The patient was brought to the hospital an extremely unstable state, upon evaluation she was diagnosed to be Dengue positive. The patients family was apprised of her criticality and appropriate medical aid was provided, however, the patient succumbed to irreversible complications caused due to Dengue Haemorrhagic Shock Syndrome and Multi-Organ Failure.”