Agra: Turned away by 6 private hospitals, newborn suffering from fever dies

AGRA: Turned away by six private hospitals, an eight-day-old girl who was suffering from fever died on way to the district hospital in the city on Tuesday night. The child's father, a small-scale shoe manufacturer, claimed that for 10 hours they hopped from one hospital to the other with the sick child but no one provided treatment to the infant. This is the fourth case in the past 15 days in which a patient died while running from one hospital to the other.
Twenty-nine-year-old Usha, wife of Manjeet Sutal, gave birth to the girl child on April 27 at a private hospital. The couple resides in Kazi Para, under the jurisdiction of Rakabhanj police station. Manjeet said the child was born healthy but on Monday it suffered from mild fever. "As the fever rose, I took the child to a nearby clinic where I was asked to take her to a 'major' hospital. I initially took my daughter to four hospitals located on MG Road, Pratapura and Shahganj, but all of them refused to provide treatment to my child," said Manjeet.
"On Monday evening, one of my friends told me that a private doctor who has a clinic near the Maruti estate crossing was attending to patients. I rushed to that hospital, but the staff made me wait for over one hour. After a checkup, the doctor told me to take the child to some other hospital as it does not have the required staff and facilities. Then I took my daughter to a multi-specialty hospital on Fatehabad Road. Here, the staffers told me that the doctors are not available," he added.
“My well-wishers had advised me against taking my daughter to SN Medical College or the district hospital as Covid-19 patients are being treated in these facilities. As my daughter was losing her battle, I decided to take her to the district hospital. On the way, I stopped at a private hospital as my child had stopped responding around 9:30 pm, but she was declared brought dead.”
Chief medical officer of Agra district, Dr Mukesh Kumar Vats, said, “I have not received any formal complaint in the matter. The family members of the child should have dialled 108 or 112 helpline number”.
In the past 15 days, at least three cases of gross medical negligence have surfaced in Agra where non-Covid-19 patients were denied treatment by private and government hospitals. On April 22, a pregnant woman was denied admission in at least two private hospitals. The women suffered severe pain for over six hours and when she was finally admitted at district woman’s hospital around 9pm, the doctors declared that her child had died in the womb.
On April 24, a 12-year-old boy suffering from acute pain in the stomach was turned away by six private hospitals. After exhausting all options, the boy was rushed to SN Medical College where doctors allegedly asked the parents to put the child in the isolation ward meant for Covid-19 patients.
“The next day, we again took him to a private hospital, the sixth one, but the doctors here refused to treat him. We then approached police and the district administration for help. They directed us to go back to SN Medical College, but by then the doctors declared him brought dead,” said Lakhan Singh, the boy's father.
On April 29, three private hospitals refused to provide treatment to an eight-month-old baby. When the parents reached SN Medical College, the child died waiting for treatment as the parents were told to do the paperwork first.
On April 30, the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) had issued notice to the Agra district administration after a complaint was filed over the death of two kids and a woman delivering a stillborn after they were allegedly denied treatment by hospitals.