Father blames hospital after 3-day-old tests positive for Covid 19

Team Udayavani, Apr 2, 2020, 5:26 PM IST

Mumbai: In an alleged case of negligence by hospital authorities, a three-day-old infant and his mother tested positive for Covid 19 in Mumbai.

A video of a man (father of the infant) appealing to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray to save his family has surfaced online.

In the video the man says that his wife gave birth to a healthy baby at a local hospital in Mumbai’s Chembur. The man has claimed that hospital admitted a covid 19 patient in the same room as his family without revealing this information to them.

Moreover the doctors asked them to vacate the room citing an order from BMC (Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation), despite the fact his wife had just given birth and was in no condition to move.

Hours later, a doctor called them to inform that the other patient who shared the hospital room was covid 19 positive. “The doctor said medical staff could not attend to my wife or child because we may have been infected,” said the man fighting back tears.

The man refused to take a discharge from the hospital until he, his wife and baby were tested and even spent Rs 13,500 for the same. However the hospital authorities forced them to take a discharge as the hospital was closing and even charged them in excess of the actual bill amount, alleged the man.

The family is now undertaking treatment at city’s Kasturba Hospital, he said.

“Now I just want my child to get good treatment and I am begging Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray to please look after my child,” he said in the video, breaking down as he repeated his plea.

He also hit out at the medical staff whose negligence has endangered the life of his wife and child, saying: “What happened to me must never happen to anyone else. Hospital staff cannot make mistakes like this”.