Police issue notice to Max Hospital, ask to join probe

NEW DELHI: Days after a premature-born baby was wrongly declared dead by a city-based private hospital, Delhi Police on Sunday said they have sent a notice to the hospital authorities to join the probe.

Doctors at Max Hospital, Shalimar Bagh, had last Thursday declared dead the twin babies born to couple; however, one of the infants was later found to be alive.

Police have already registered a case under Section 308 (attempt to commit culpable homicide) of the Indian Penal Code, an offense which could be punishable by up to seven years in jail. Two doctors have been named in the FIR.

Deputy Commissioner of Police (North West) Aslam Khan told Millennium Post on Saturday that they have sent the notice to authorities of Max Hospital to join the probe and share documents pertaining to the case with the police.

"We have asked them to submit the documents related to the treatment of the baby and also to join the investigation as soon as possible," she said.

The parents of the baby had been told by the hospital that both the twins – a boy and a girl – were stillborn, and were handed over to the parents in a polythene bag. However, just before the last rites of the twins, the family found that the boy was alive, police said.

Delhi Health minister Satyendar Jain on Saturday had said if the hospital is found guilty of negligence in the course of the investigation, its license could be cancelled.

After the incident of the infant being wrongly declared dead came to light, the Delhi government on Friday ordered an inquiry into the "criminal negligence" by Max Hospital.

The copy of the FIR states that Ashish, the father of the child, claimed that the hospital advised three injections costing Rs 35,000 and claimed later that the probability of survival had risen to 30 per cent.

He also alleged that the hospital said the bill for keeping the surviving baby in the nursery till it was out of danger would be Rs 50 lakh.