Father of deceased 7-year-old pleads for justice as hospital bills Rs 16 lakhs in 2 weeks

Gurgaon-based Fortis Hospital charged Dwarka resident Jayant Singh over a lakh rupees per day for fifteen days when they admitted their 7-year-old daughter to the hospital for treatment of dengue. Adya, Jayant’s daughter was declared dead on September 15. Her hospital bills soared close to Rs16 lakh in a fortnight, which Jayant paid upfront to the hospital. What Jayant feels dejected about is the arbitrary costs imposed by the hospital that soared by tens of thousands every single day. 

Meanwhile, Minister of Health and Family Welfare, JP Nadda came out in support of the family and tweeted “Please provide me details on hfwminister@gov.in - We will take all necessary action.”
 

Please provide me details on hfwminister@gov.in .We will take all the necessary action. https://t.co/dq273L66cK

— Jagat Prakash Nadda (@JPNadda) November 20, 2017

Adya was burning under high fever on the night of August 27 and was admitted to Rockland Hospital of Dwarka Sector 12 by August 29. “Much to our horror, she was initially admitted into a room with a Swine Flu patient lying beside her. We protested and got her room changed,” said Jayant. 

On August 31, she was detected with Dengue Type IV and was asked by Rockland doctors to be shifted to another hospital which would have a paediatric Intensive Care Unit (ICU) set up. 
 
“We shifted her to Fortis Hospital in Gurgaon where she was sedated and immediately put on a ventilator. For three days, she was under sedation. On the fourth and the fifth day, there was no doctor to talk to as it was a weekend. We stood clueless outside the ICU, staring at our sick baby through the glass window, wondering what to do,” said Jayant. 

One of my batchmate's 7 year old was in @fortis_hospital for ~15 days for Dengue. Billed 18 lakhs including for 2700 gloves. She passed away at the end of it. Corrupt assholes.

— D (@DopeFloat) November 17, 2017

However, the hospital has refuted the allegations levelled by the family. According to the hospital, the girl was admitted with dengue shock syndrome and her condition was extremely serious. “The girl came to us without the medical advice of the previous hospital. As soon as she came to us, we had incubated her. On September 14, she was put off the ventilator as suggested by the family and against the doctor’s advice,” said a senior doctor from Fortis hospital.
 
Explaining the situation further, the doctor added that a multi-disciplinary team of doctors was formed to look into the case. “Clearly, everything is planned. The girl passed away on September 14 and the family is making the false allegations after two months,” added the doctor.
 
Jayant ended up paying the highest for expensive branded drugs, close to Rs 4 lakh when cheaper options for drugs were available. Cost of Medical consumables including up to 2700 gloves billed at Rs 17,142 came up to a whopping Rs 2.73 lakh, while medical investigations including blood tests cost him another Rs 2.17 lakh. Diagnostics are though billed separately from investigations, adding another Rs 29, 290. 

 
Adya was jabbed on an average of forty syringes per day, a total of 660 syringes in fourteen days, show medical records, said Jayant. “Also the hospital procured 21 vials of the costlier brand of Meropenem injection, ‘Merocrit,’ by Cipla - per vial costing around Rs 3100 billed at Rs 65,362 and 9 vials of cheaper brand of the same Meropenem injection, ‘Merolan,’ by Mylan - per vial costing around Rs 500 billed at Rs 4,491. Both the brands were pumped into my baby’s body. Clearly, more vials of the expensive injection, up to seven times the price but said to have the same effect were administered. We were not even asked our preference for drugs which is an essential right of the citizen,” said Jayant. “Also, a blood sugar testing strip costs Rs 13, but we were charged Rs 200 per strip.”
 
Every day as the bills soared while Adya fought for her life on the ventilator, the billing department would call Jayant to cough up more money. “We have an insurance cover of Rs 3 lakh. After it was overshot, the finance team would call up every day and ask me to deposit more money which I did,” said Jayant. 
 
It is not as much about the money as it is about the utterly insensitive approach of the hospital staff, Jayant recounts. For a family sitting 24x7 outside an ICU, each minute seems like a lifetime.
 
On the seventh day of the admission to Fortis, doctors informed Jayant that her brain was in a critical shape and that her body organs had started failing. She was started on dialysis. “While on September 9, 10 and 11 she was undergoing dialysis, another weekend approached and we had no access to a doctor who would counsel us on her condition,” said Jayant. 
 
Adya was under still under heavy sedation and on September 14, the doctors told the family that they would conduct an MRI scan on her. “They later told me that up to 70-80% of her brain had been damaged and even if she were to recover she would not have normal function,” Jayant stated. 
 
What was more shocking was when a doctor walked up to Jayant’s wife and suggested a full body plasma transplant costing close to Rs 15-20 lakh as a last resort to save baby Adya. “On one hand, the doctors had declared that my baby’s brain was 70-80% damaged, while on the other hand, they suggested a full body plasma transplantation,” said Jayant.
 
Giving up all hope, Jayant told the doctors at Fortis that he wanted to take his baby home. “They told me that I will have to seek Discharge Against Medical Advice (DAMA) and arrange for an ambulance myself. They took her off the ventilator, dialysis and stopped feeding her,” said Jayant. 
 
“At the end of two weeks in Fortis, on the last day, I was waiting to ferry my baby away since 2 pm. They only released her at 11:30 pm. We immediately took her back to Rockland Hospital and after much persuasion, they conducted an ECG, declared Adya dead and issued us a death certificate.” 

Jagat @JPNadda this happens in each and every private hospitals. @fortis_hospital is a champion on this. Many cases have been reported for @fortis_hospital. https://t.co/jiL8WcNaHP

— ABHISHEK KUMAR (@abhis_cool71) November 20, 2017

 
Fortis Hospital had refused to issue Jayant a death certificate for his deceased baby as they were seeking Discharge Against Medical Advice. All along Jayant had suspected that his baby had died in the Fortis ICU itself. “Her skin had turned blue and had crumpled. But the doctors kept telling me that this happens. I believe my baby had died while she was all wired up in the Fortis paediatric ICU itself,” said Jayant. “The nurses came up to me saying that as they were readying my baby to be shifted out of Fortis, her clothes don’t fit her. I asked her to be discharged in the medical gown. They asked me to go to the billing counter and pay for the gown as well.”
 
Jayant had twin daughters - Adya and Anya. Anya constantly kept inquiring about her ailing sister Adya, while Jayant’s wife Deepti, who was six weeks pregnant at the time of Adya’s hospital admission, suffered a miscarriage. “I am still trying to hold my family together. My wife and my twin daughter Anya are reeling under an extreme shock. And we have lost our unborn child too,” sobbed Jayant. 

Dear @JPNadda ji - theres a need to evolve a way/regulator/law to protect patients n Hospital consumers from profiteering n exploitatn by few private hospitals. Like #RERA for homebuyers. ! @PMOIndia @narendramodi https://t.co/nqQU8SIBwS

— Rajeev Chandrasekhar (@rajeev_mp) November 20, 2017

 
Jayant is contemplating suing Fortis Hospital in the court of law for the unimaginable trauma and mental harassment it has brought him and his family. Meanwhile, the family has taken to Facebook and Twitter to disseminate awareness about the commercialisation of health care. “We have started a Facebook page - Fight against healthcare corruption to make people aware of such commercialisation. I will soon move the court of law too against Fortis,” he said.

The hospital has issued a statement.

“We empathize with Baby Adya’s family in this difficult hour of sorrow and grief. Seven-year-old Baby Adya was brought in to Fortis Memorial Research Institute (Gurgaon), from another private hospital on the morning of 31st August 2017. She was admitted with Severe Dengue which progressed to Dengue shock syndrome and was managed on IV fluids and supportive treatment as there was a progressive fall in platelet count and hemoconcentration. As her condition deteriorated, she had to be put on ventilatory support within 48 hours. The family was kept informed of the critical condition of the child and the poor prognosis in these situations. As a process, we counselled the family daily on the condition of the child. On 14th September, 17, the family decided to take her away from the hospital against medical advice (LAMA – Leave Against Medical Advice) and she succumbed the same day. 
 
All standard medical protocols were followed in treating the patient and all clinical guidelines were adhered to.
 
An itemized bill spread over 20 pages was explained and handed over to the family at the time of their departure from the hospital. The patient was treated in the Paediatric ICU (PICU) for 15 days and was critical right from the time of admission requiring Intensive monitoring. Treatment during these 15 days included mechanical ventilation, high-frequency ventilation, continuous renal replacement therapy, intravenous antibiotics, inotropes, sedation and analgesia.  Care of ventilated patients in ICU requires a high number of consumables as per globally accepted infection control protocols. All consumables are transparently reflected in records and charged as per actuals.