Gurugram-based multi-speciality hospital Medanta Medicity has refunded Rs 15.9 lakh to the father of a 7-year-old dengue victim who lost his life last year during treatment here. The deceased infant’s father, Gopendra Singh Parmar, said that he accepted the money because he is poor and has no means to fight a legal battle.
Gopendra, an LIC agent, said he had to mortgage his house to pay for his son Saurya Pratap’s treatment. Surya died on November 22 last year. “I accepted the money because I’m poor and don’t have the means to fight a legal battle in court.”
“I have another child to feed,” he said, thanking the Union Health Minister JP Nadda and his local area MP Manoj Rajoria. Gajendra hails from Karauli-Dhaulpur in Rajasthan.
Gajendra also shared a letter written by Om Prakash Sharma, Additional Private Secretary to JP Nadda to Medanta Chairman Dr Naresh Tehran. The letter dated March 1 urged Dr Tehran to refund the amount to Gajendra since his family was very poor. The letter also made a reference to Manoj Rajoria, stating it has been issued only after an intervention made by the BJP MP.
Gajendra had filed a complaint against the hospital, accusing it of overcharging him against the treatment provided to his son Surya Pratap who succumbed to dengue. The amount was refunded to Gajendra via cheque.
Gopendra said that he decided to accept the refund and withdraw the case after series of disappointments on the parts of the administration in delivering justice to him. According to him, it took a month time to register the case against the hospital. The case was filed on December 22 at the city’s Sadar Police Station after he was forced to wait for hours by then SHO Vijay Kumar.
Since no action was initiated by police against the hospital, on December 30 he sought help from the Prime Minister, Union Health Ministry, Union Minister Maneka Gandhi, Haryana government, registrars of the Delhi and Haryana Medical Councils and the Medical Council of India.