India probe finds leading Delhi hospital guilty in declaring living baby dead

NEW DELHI, Dec. 6 (Xinhua) -- A high-level probe panel formed by the Delhi government has found a city's leading private hospital guilty in the case of wrongly declaring a living baby dead, officials said Wednesday.

Max Hospital declared the living baby dead along with his stillborn twin on Thursday, and packed the two bodies in a polythene bag and handed them over to the parents, who later found him to be breathing on way to cremation ground.

"The three-member panel has found Max Hospital guilty of not following prescribed medical norms in dealing with newborn infants. The hospital did not carry out an electrocardiogram to check if the child was alive," a senior health official said.

"Also the probe panel has found that the baby was handed over to the parents without written instructions, in a plastic bag, along with his dead twin, flouting the basic medical norms. It has submitted its report to Delhi Health Minister Satyender Jain for action," he added.

The health minister last week threatened to cancel the licence of the hospital if it was found guilty of medical negligence in the case that sparked nationwide anger.

Max Hospital has sacked two of its doctors, holding them primarily responsible for the incident. "We have decided to terminate the services of two treating doctors in the case relating to the twin extreme pre-term babies," it said in a statement.

A police complaint has also been registered in the case separately, in which Max Hospital has been booked for culpability. Enditem