Denied care over Rs 200, infant dies in hospital

Denied care over Rs 200, infant dies in hospital 
Aparna Banerji
Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, July 26

A Jalandhar-based couple, Sanjeev and Anita, had never though they would have to pay such a big price for being poor. Their five-day-old daughter paid with her life after the couple failed to arrange Rs 200 for her treatment. Authorities at the local Civil Hospital allegedly refused to treat the infant until the amount was not deposited.

Anita had delivered the baby on July 20 and her daughter was shifted to the pediatrics ward two days later. She alleged that yesterday morning, the hospital staff stopped treating her child as they could not arrange Rs 200 that was needed for using a phototherapy machine.

As Sanjeev ventured out to arrange the money, the girl's health deteriorated and the baby died at 4 pm. "Nurses gave an injection to my daughter at 8 am, after which they demanded Rs 200 for using the machine. As we were unable to pay the amount, they stopped her treatment. As the day passed, the names of other patients were called to bring their babies to use the warming machines whereas my baby was left out," she said.

While the standard charges for phototherapy treatment are Rs 25 per day, Anita claimed they were being charged Rs 200.

After being given the injection, the girl's arms started swelling and the skin around her eyes also got dark, she alleged. "Still, no treatment was provided to her."

Though Sanjeev, who works as a labourer, returned after some time, the child was no more by then.

The couple's miseries did not end here. When they raised a hue and cry over the incident, the authorities summoned security guards to put them out of the hospital, claimed an inconsolable Banso, Sanjeev's mother.

After a few hours when the family was heading home, Anita was not even provided with an ambulance. The family had to tread 7 km on foot to their residence in Santokhpura. They reached their house at 4 am in the morning.

"We asked for an ambulance, but they didn't budge. In fact, we were thrown out of the hospital in the middle of night," Banso said. The nurses at the hospital's pediatric ward, however, claimed, "The child died due to choking as her mother was feeding her in a proper manner."

It was the couple's second child. The first, too, had died at the Civil Hospital a year-and-a-half ago "because she was born weak", Anita said.