Turned away by hospital, baby dies of kidney failure.

A Two-month-old baby who was turned away by a private hospital in North Delhi died on Friday, ironically just 24 hours before a High Court-appointed committee monitoring the treatment of poor patients asked the hospital to explain its conduct.

Baby Tarun, the son of a street food vendor, threw up the milk he had been fed, and died before a local doctor could reach his parents’ Nathupura home, his mother Somwati told The Indian Express on Saturday.

Ashok Aggarwal, member of the committee on EWS (economically weaker sections) patients that issued notice to Ashok Vihar’s Sunder Lal Jain Hospital, said the panel would seek the baby’s medical records from Lok Nayak and AIIMS, the two hospitals that the baby’s parents had subsequently taken him to.

Tarun was referred to paediatric emergency at Sunder Lal Jain (SLJ) in November 2011 with “impending acute kidney failure from sepsis and metabolic acidosis”, but the hospital turned him away, allegedly because his parents could not produce a BPL (below poverty line) card. Tarun was then 22 days old.

According to the history and admission summary record of MCD’s Hindu

Rao Hospital, which referred Tarun to SLJ under the

EWS beds quota, “patient (was) referred to Sunder Lal Jain Hospital after discussion with CMO of SLJ Hospital

for further management under EWS. “(But the) patient came back to Hindu Rao Hospital as SLJ Hospital management refused admission due to non-availability of BPL card.”

Dr Kiran Aggarwal, who treated Tarun at Hindu Rao, said, “We were treating the baby for an acute infection. When we thought it would affect his kidneys, we referred him to SLJ Hospital since we do not have a facility for paediatric dialysis. Though the patient’s father gave a written affidavit as directed by the court, and our medical officer accompanied the family, the hospital authorities refused admission without a BPL card.”

Dr Aggarwal said that after SLJ turned the family away, they returned to Hindu Rao, from where Tarun was taken to Lok Nayak Hospital and admitted to the paediatrics department there.

Tarun’s grieving mother Somwati said on Saturday that her child had fought a long battle for treatment.

On January 11, Lok Nayak referred the baby to AIIMS for management of his kidneys. He was admitted for three days, during which tests were conducted on him. Doctors at AIIMS diagnosed him with a congenital disorder of the kidneys which was not “surgically correctible”. They stabilised him, and after asking his parents to return for follow-up treatment, sent him home.

Dr V K Paul, head of the department of paediatrics at AIIMS, said the baby had been born with dysplastic kidney syndrome, and had a single, improperly developed kidney. “Lok Nayak Hospital referred the case here because it was a complicated one. We stabilised the infection and then put him on peritoneal dialysis. Since the problem was not surgically correctible, after his condition stablilised, we discharged him, and told the parents to come back for a follow-up.”

EWS committee member Ashok Aggarwal said, “SLJ Hospital violated High Court orders by turning away the baby. We will now seek medical records from Lok Nayak and AIIMS to establish what happened.”

Authorities at SLJ said they were yet to go through the notice. “As a norm, poor patients are not turned away if they sign an affidavit, even if they don’t have a BPL card. We will have to look into this case,” Dr Rekha Gupta, nodal officer for EWS patients at the hospital, said.

Source: http://www.indianexpress.com/news/turned-away-by-hospital-baby-dies-of-kidney-failure/905084/