Baby's body to be exhumed after suspected dengue death – Telangana Today

The parents of the deceased infant alleged that doctors at Shishu Raksha Hospital in Sangareddy had re-enacted a scene from Chiranjeevi's film 'Tagore' in which a dead man is treated so that the hospital could collect bills.

Sangareddy: The death of a 45-day-old boy sparked a huge controversy after his parents lodged a complaint with the Sangareddy police against the management of a private hospital there. Following the complaint, the district medical officer's officials are preparing to exhume the body on Thursday.

The parents alleged that the doctors at Shishu Raksha Hospital in Sangareddy had re-enacted a scene from Chiranjeevi film 'Tagore' in which a dead man is treated so that the hospital could collect the bill. Chilpishetti Prabulingam (26), father of the boy Dhashwik, said he had admitted his son to Shishu Raksha Hospital on September 5 when the latter fell ill. Dashwik was diagnosed with dengue after some tests and the hospital treated him till September 8. Doctors told the parents that the baby's platelet count had dropped. Prabulingam said the hospital staff did not allow him to see the boy from September 7 evening as his condition was critical. On September 8, doctors told him to rush the boy to Niloufer Hospital as his condition had deteriorated. The hospital arranged its own ambulance, but the parents were not even allowed to touch the baby, Prabulingam said, adding that the ambulance technician held the baby until they reached Niloufer Hospital. When they reached the hospital, the baby was not breathing, he said.

The doctors at Niloufer Hospital tried to revive the child by performing CPR, but their attempt was unsuccessful. Prabulingam was shocked when the doctors at Niloufer told him that the child had apparently died three to four hours ago while they were still at Sangareddy Hospital. He said the hospital authorities made him pay all the bills (Rs 1.30 lakh) before allowing him to take the child to Hyderabad. He had to leave a gold chain as a collateral to borrow Rs 2 lakh to pay the bills. In a state of depression, they buried the child without even getting the postmortem done on the same day.

Nevertheless, on September 10, Deputy District Health and Medical Officer Dr Sunanda visited Prabulingam's residence to investigate the incident. Dr Sunanda found that the doctors had treated the baby before diagnosing dengue. She said the doctors would have to conduct an ELISA test to confirm dengue. Hours later, DM&HO Dr Gayathri Devi inspected the hospital and seized the laboratory. Three days later, on September 13, Prabulingam filed a complaint against the management of Shishu Raksha Hospital, accusing them of negligence. The police filed a complaint against the management. Meanwhile, the district health officials are preparing to exhume the body on Thursday to conduct a post-mortem to find out the cause of death.

Interestingly, all this happened in the district of Health Minister Damodara Rajanarasimha.