New Delhi: The body of a one-day old infant who died past midnight was found this morning inside a hospital waste truck instead of the mortuary, for which the hospital had charged the family Rs 1,500 as mortuary charges.
The child, which was born in Khanna nursing home with an enlarged brain, was taken to Mata Chanan Devi Memorial Hospital in west Delhi's Janakpuri, where a blood test and x-ray was conducted. Doctors said blood transfusion would be given to the infant.
Late after midnight, the infant's father got a call from the hospital doctor saying that the infant passed away at 1:30 am. The doctor asked the parent to take possession of the body.
Since it was past midnight, the parents offered and paid Rs 1,500 as mortuary charges, though as per rules, no mortuary charges can be collected till six hours after death.
On Monday morning, when the relatives went to collect the body at the mortuary, they found the infant's body kept in the hospital waste truck alongwith other hospital wastes.
The family promptly called the police and a complaint was lodged.
The hospital medical superintendent refused to comment. When reporters met the new AAP Health Minister Surender Kumar Jain, he took it lightly saying, the reporters should rather meet the hospital MD or the MS, and he as minister was yet to get any written complaint.
Union Women and Child Development Minister Krishna Tirath described this incident as "inhuman" and said that her ministry would ask the National Commission for Protection of Children's Rights to inquire into the matter.
