No electrocardiography was conducted by New Delhi’s Max Hospital to check whether the babies it declared stillborn last week were alive, a government panel found on Tuesday. This was against prescribed norms for dealing with newborns, and once the panel submits its report to the government, the hospital could face “drastic action”, a government official told The Indian Express.
The parents of the babies later found that one of the twins was alive.
The panel also found that the babies were given to the parents without “any written instructions”, and that the twin that died was not separated from the one that survived. The family had alleged that the hospital had handed the babies to them in a plastic bag.
The committee, comprising three doctors, will submit its final report to Delhi Health Minister Satyendra Jain later this week.
Max Hospital refused to comment on the latest deveopment and said, according to The Times of India: “Media flashes indicate that the said report is preliminary. We would like to thoroughly review the final report when we receive it before commenting.”
On Sunday, the Shalimar Bagh facility of Max Hospital terminated the services of two doctors who were involved in erroneously declaring the twins dead on November 30, after they were born premature. The surviving baby is under intensive care at a smaller hospital.
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