Police files status report in Max Hospital case

Delhi Police on Monday filed a status report in the case of Max Hospital wrongly declaring a live newborn dead -- who later died -- and mentioned that the time of death of the twins was missing from the hospital's register.

In its status report filed before a magisterial court, it said that "during investigation, the police found out that in the death register of Max Hospital only the time of birth of twin babies was mentioned but not their time of death, despite both the babies being handed in two separate tightly wrapped packages".

The investigating officer of the Crime Branch told Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Rajesh Malik that they were waiting for a response from Delhi Medical Council and they have already recorded the statement of the persons concerned.

The court directed the investigation officer to probe the matters from all angles expeditiously and listed the matter for February 26.

The case pertains to one of the premature twins wrongly declared dead last month at Max Hospital, Shalimar Bagh. He died during treatment at a nursing home in Pitampura a week later.

Both the babies were declared stillborn by the hospital and handed over to the family allegedly in a polythene bag.

But to their shock, the family, while on their way to perform the final rites, found that the boy was still alive.

The Delhi government has cancelled the licence of the hospital for alleged medical negligence.

The post mortem report has been obtained which mentions the "cause of death septicaemia in a preterm foetus associated with necrotising enterocolitis, intraventricular haemorrhage with pneumonitis", police said in its status report.

However, it said that the final report regarding the cause of death will be ascertained after getting final opinion from the histopathology department of Safadarjung Hospital here.

The report was filed after the parents of the dead twins approached the court seeking status report of the case.

--IANS

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