In an incident that highlighted the callousness of a private hospital in the city, the body of a newborn girl was found dumped inside a bio-waste truck on Monday.
The shocking incident occurred at the Mata Chanan Devi Hospital in Janakpuri where the infant was rushed to on Sunday night after she fell sick immediately after birth at Khanna Nursing Home. The infant was declared brought dead and the family was asked to take the body next day. The parents alleged they paid Rs1,500 to a ward boy to keep the body in the mortuary but that was not done. A case has been registered under Section 297 of the IPC against the hospital.
Meanwhile, the family claimed that they tried to contact Delhi Health Minister Satyendra Jain but he did not respond. When mediapersons sought his response, he told them to question the Managing Director and Medical Superintendent of the hospital. However, in the evening, Delhi CM Kejriwal assured punitive action against the guilty.
On Monday, when the baby’s parents reached the morgue to collect her body at 9 am, they could not find it. They were shocked to find that the hospital staff was unaware of its whereabouts. When the parents raised a hue and cry hospital staff began searching and the missing body was finally spotted inside a truck that had just collected bio-waste from the dustbin and was about to leave.
The baby’s parents accused the hospital of carelessness. “Our child passed way around 2 am on Monday. Hospital authorities asked us to take the body the next day and pay Rs1,500 to keep the body in the mortuary. Despite giving the money, they dumped her body in the garbage. The parents have spent around Rs40,000 on the girl’s treatment in just 12 hours,” lamented Sunil, the newborn’s uncle.
When The Pioneer contacted hospital authorities they did not respond. Sources revealed the hospital has formed an internal committee which is probing the incident and will submit the report in three days.