Baby Declared 'Dead' Wrongly By Hospital Dies For Real

A newborn who was erroneously declared "dead" by an upscale hospital in Delhi, India, died days after receiving treatment. Outrage sparked in the country over the negligence of the doctors and the hospital after the baby was found to be alive while on the way to his own funeral.

The incident took place in a private facility called Max Hospital on Nov. 30 when doctors handed over the baby and his twin brother in a plastic bag telling the family that both the children were stillborn due to their premature birth. While taking the babies for cremation, the family found one of them squirming inside the plastic bag.

Local media reports said that the 22-week premature baby was kept on life support for five days but died during his treatment at another medical facility late Tuesday.

Authorities at Max Healthcare released a statement Wednesday, expressing their condolences over a baby’s death.

"We just learnt of the sad demise of the 23-week preterm baby, who was on ventilator support," the hospital said. "Our deepest condolences are with the parents and other family members. While we understand that survival in extreme preterm births is rare, it is always painful for the parents and family. We wish them the strength to cope with their loss."

Earlier on Tuesday, a preliminary investigation into the incident found the hospital guilty of not having followed prescribed medical norms in dealing with newborn infants. The hospital reportedly failed to conduct electrocardiography tracing before declaring the boy dead.

After widespread outrage and protests outside the hospital led by the parents of the infants, the police registered a complaint alleging medical negligence by MAX Hospital. The family also alleges that the hospital asked for a huge fee to treat the children and later told them that the two newborns died.

The hospital Sunday fired two doctors who were in-charge of the infants.

Announcing the termination of the two doctors, the privately run hospital said in a statement: "This strict action has been taken on the basis of our initial discussions with experts."

"While the inquiry by the expert group which includes external experts from Indian Medical Association (IMA) is still in process, we have decided to terminate the services of the two treating doctors," the hospital added. "We wish to clarify that this action should not presuppose finding of any lapse by the expert group and should not be construed in any way to be anything other than an expression of our continued commitment to providing quality healthcare."

Jagat Prakash Nadda, the minister of health and family welfare, Saturday, condemned the incident, saying: “Very unfortunate incident, have asked the Delhi government to look into the matter and take necessary action. I appeal to the states to adopt the Clinical Establishments Act so that regulatory authorities are operative and can see working and functioning of private institutions.”

The state Health Minister Satyendra Jain described the incident as "shocking criminal negligence," and also warned of canceling the hospital's license if it continued with the negligence.

The latest incident follows another hospital negligence case in India that took place last month where Fortis Hospital in Gurugram, a city close to the Indian capital of New Delhi, came under fire after the parents of a 7-year-old girl, who died of dengue, accused it of wrongly charging a whopping $24,602 for the treatment of the child.