Medical Negligence, Unfair Trade Practices: Delhi consumer forum asks Max Healthcare to respond to allegations

New Delhi: The state consumer forum here has sought response of a healthcare major on a plea claiming gross medical negligence on its part that allegedly led to the death of a 24-year-old youth two years back.

The Delhi State Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum issued the notice to Max Healthcare Institute Limited seeking its stand on the petition which has alleged that negligence and unfair trade practices by one of its hospitals here led to the death of law student Krishi Singh in 2017.

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Although he was admitted in the emergency ward of Max hospital at 7:21 AM, it took almost five to six hours to conduct a CT scan and MRI as the hospital was waiting for payment of Rs 4 lakh for the scans throughGS, Singh's father, Jagvinder Singh, has alleged in the complaint.

The father has claimed in his plea, filed through advocate Tushar Sannu, that the hospital refused to accept cash above Rs 99,000 and as GS transactions take around two hours to process, his son was not provided with the requisite treatment.

The petition has further said that Singh was declared dead by the hospital on April 29 stating "cardiorespiratory failure" as the reason. However, in the postmortem report conducted by another hospital, the reason behind death was mentioned to be "cerebral injury".

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The head injury, which led to Singh's death was not mentioned anywhere in the scan reports or death summary provided by Max Hospital, the plea has said.

It has also said that the father had requested the hospital to donate his son's vital organs, but was informed that the heart and kidneys of his child were not working.

However, "no abnormality was detected in the heart, kidney, liver" contrary to the claims of doctors at Max Hospital, the petition has contended.

The plea has alleged that the hospital "deliberately delayed" disclosing the fact of Singh's death and kept giving false assurances regarding his condition.

"The opposite party kept on extorting money from the complainant and family under the garb of providing best medical treatment to their son," the petition has said.