Woman alleges ‘medical kidnapping’
Terming her experience as “medical kidnapping”, Parul Bhasin Verma from New Delhi shared a post regarding the death of her mother who was admitted to the ICU of two private hospitals, namely Yashoda hospital in Secunderabad and BL Kapoor in New Delhi, costing an average of `1 lakh per day which ran to a total of `1.2 crore and yet her mother passed away after contracting multiple infections.
The post was shared 45,000 times on Facebook and retweeted 1,000 times on Twitter as people commented that hospitals had become business establishments. Yashoda Hospital has denied all allegations and deemed them baseless and meant to malign their reputation.
The post chronicles her mother's illness which began on January 2, 2018 when her mother was admitted to BL Kapoor after being diagnosed with liver cirrhosis. On January 12, a woman named Jyotsna Verma claimed that a liver was available in Hyderabad in a short time, however, it would cost `23 lakh. She was charged `1 lakh for the information as well. The patient was then shifted to Yashoda on June 16 and a cost estimate of `27 lakh was given.
After 20 days, the mother underwent a successful liver transplant. However three days later on February 8, she was put on ventilator due to lung infection and rema-ined on it for around thirty days. The post states that the hospital charged the patient an average of Rs.1lakh every day in addition to the `27 lakh. Parul alleges that the accounting department of Yashoda threatened to stop the treatment if the money was not paid.
On March 13, when the family ran out of savings, the hospital discharged her saying that she only required nursing care and they shifted her back to B.L. Kapoor.
On April 20, her mother fell ill due to jaundice and doctors from Yashoda immediately instructed the doctors in Delhi to put a stent in her liver to prevent the spread of jaundice as was done when she faced a similar problem in Hyderabad. However the operation was performed only after the weekend and the delay caused the infection to spread across her body, causing multiple organ failure.
Parul said, “They kept on performing dialysis on a person who was practically dead, just to earn more money. She spent 100 days in the ICU and even as her health deteriorated, the hospital cared only about the money.”
A senior official at Yashoda said, “We have not overcharged the patient by even a rupee. She came here for a liver transplant and there were several health complications that her daughter was aware about. Due to multiple complications, the treatment cost went up. The liver transplant was done successfully and the patient was taken to Delhi where she passed away two months later. We followed all protocols and ensured that the patient was safe when she was here and we also were in touch with her doctors in Delhi when she fell ill.”
They kept on performing dialysis on a person who was practically dead, just to earn more money, which is inhuman. She spent 100 days in the ICU and even as her health deteriorated, the hospital cared only about the money. — PARUL BHASIN VERMA, Patient’s daughter