The drama at Chennai’s Frontier Lifeline hospital ended, with the hospital releasing the children under the condition that their medical expenses will be cleared.
The drama at Chennai’s Frontier Lifeline hospital ended on Saturday, with the hospital authorities agreeing to ‘release’ the ten children with heart-related ailments under the condition that all their medical expenses will be cleared by the Guyana-based NGO within six months.
The children had been brought by Kids First Fund, an NGO run by Varshnie Udho Singh, a former first lady of the Guyana. The children were about to leave the hospital on Friday night, but hospital officials had refused to let them go, insisting that Singh first settle the bills, amounting to Rs45 lakh, for the surgeries that had been performed earlier this month. The dispute drew media attention after the scared kids held up placards saying ‘Help us,’ against the glass panel of the room in which they had been detained.
The matter was resolved after negotiations between Frontier Lifeline Hospital chairman and CEO Dr KM Cherian, a leading cardio-thoracic surgeon, and Singh. “We discussed the issue at length today. Singh has paid some amount towards the total bill and has requested for six months to raise and pay the balance amount. Dr KM Cherian has accepted her request and has directed that the patients from Guyana be discharged today to board the Air India flight this evening,” a joint statement issued by the hospital’s CAO Jose Manavalan and Varshnie Singh said.
Earlier Dr Cherian had threatened to file an FIR with the police and take up the issue with the high commissioners as well as the external affairs minister. “She stage-managed the show knowing fully well that I would be away in Cairns. Even previously, we have had problems of payments from her despite giving her the best of concessions,” Dr Cherian had told reporters at the hospital earlier on Saturday.
Singh, however, maintained that the NGO had been sending kids to the hospital for heart surgeries for the last four years and always settled bills only after their return by raising funds.
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