Family Of Baby Wrongly Declared 'Dead' Speaks Out About Tragedy

The father of a newborn wrongly declared "dead" by a hospital in Delhi, India, spoke out just two days after the baby died for real while receiving treatment. In an interview with BBC, Ashish Kumar remembered the morning of Nov. 30 when Max Hospital handed his twins in a plastic bag saying both the babies were stillborn.

"Max Hospital declared my little boy dead while he was struggling to survive," Kumar said. "He was wrapped in five layers of plastic. Nobody can survive without oxygen for that long."

Kumar said that the news about the death of his twins was "heartbreaking" and a massive shock came when "my father-in-law realized that one of the babies was moving inside the plastic bag."

Kumar's father Kailash, who saw the baby move, said: "They had put the twins together in one basket. They were not even cleaned. I can't stop thinking that my grandson who was alive, was kept for hours with my granddaughter, who was stillborn."

Kumar's mother Meena also spoke to BBC, saying: "He looked so beautiful - exactly like my daughter. I had a faint hope that he would survive. We were planning the traditional ceremonies to celebrate his birth. But he is gone and all I can now see is a void that will never be filled."

Kumar told BBC that a day before the twins were born, the hospital conducted an ultrasound and said that everything was fine, but later the hospital demanded a huge amount of money for keeping the newborns in a special unit for four days. Despite financial trouble, Kumar managed to arrange for the money.

"Any parent would do that to save their babies. But I am heartbroken and Varsha has been completely inconsolable. My entire family was so excited to welcome the children," Kumar said. "But they never came home. We never heard their cries. I have come to hate the silence in my house."

The tragic incident sparked outrage in the country and protests erupted outside the hospital. On Friday, the Delhi government canceled the license of the hospital after finding the medical institution guilty of negligence.

“We have canceled the license of Max Hospital, Shalimar Bagh. The negligence in the newborn death case was unacceptable,” Delhi health minister Satyendra Jain said at a press conference.