A two-and-half-year-old boy died while undergoing treatment in Aditya Birla Memorial (ABM) Hospital on Monday. However, the hospital administration refused to hand over the body to his parents, stating that a Rs3 lakh bill was still pending. The relatives had already paid Rs7.48 lakh. Nearly 31 hours after the boy’s death, the administration handed over the body after relatives of the boy gheraoed the hospital administration on Tuesday evening.
Ankit Jagdish Pande was suffering from pneumonia and later it was found that he was also suffering from spine ailment. He died on Monday at 9.30 am while undergoing treatment at the hospital.
Satish Pande, the boy’s brother, told dna, “Initially, my brother was undergoing treatment at Sevadham Hospital in Talegoan. Later, he became critical and was shifted to ABM Hospital. The hospital conducted tests and noticed that he was suffering from a spine ailment due to which he could not breath. We manage to collect Rs7.34 lakh after selling land, gold ornaments, vehicles and also borrowed money from other relatives. The hospital kept us in the dark and assured us that he will be all right. But all went in vain and he died on Monday morning.”
“But the hospital authorities did not hand over his body as we did not have Rs3 lakh to pay outstanding bills,” Pande said.
The parents approached local Shiv Sena leaders and on Tuesday afternoon, the party workers gheraoed the hospital administration. Only after that, the administration decided to hand over the body.
The hospital issued a press statement in which, Rekha Dubey, chief operating officer of ABMH stated, “Ankit was admitted in the pediatric ICU (PICU) of our hospital. He was suffering from a rare congenital disease called cranio-vertebral abnormality causing cervical cord compression and flaccid quadriparesis. Our doctors advised a surgery but clearly counselled the parents about the outcome as there was very less chance of cure even after the surgery. The boy was operated on and on the sixth day we clearly informed the parents that it is not advisable to continue the treatment anymore here as there would be no chance of improvement in the condition of the patient and further counselled the parents and relatives that it would be better for them to take the kid home without wasting any more money. But the parents insisted on keeping the child at the hospital and even signed the consent letter of keeping the child on their own will. There were four counseling sessions undertaken with the parents, explaining them that they should take the baby home.”
“The baby boy expired on Monday and the total bill amounted to Rs10.84 lakh. The parents had paid Rs7.38 llakh and refused to pay the remaining money, which was not the right thing to do by the parents. However, today after discussions, the body was released and the remaining amount of Rs3,46,000 waived off,” she added.
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