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.”
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.
