West Delhi hospital terms negligence as human error

The administration of west Delhi’s Mata Chanan Devi Hospital on Tuesday termed the incident of negligence after a newborn girl’s body was found dumped in a bio-medical waste disposal truck as ‘human error’.

A four-member enquiry panel has also been constituted by the hospital and a report is expected in three days. The ‘human error’ theory is also likely to be highlighted in reply to the notice of Delhi Health Ministry, sources added.

The infant had died of complications at 1.30 am on Monday. Her family paid Rs 1,500 to keep her body in the mortuary overnight, but it was missing when the family returned to the hospital on Tuesday morning. The body was later found by a hospital staff in a truck collecting bio-medical waste.

Though a case has been filed with Janakpuri police station against two class-four employees of the hospital, the girl’s family members have called for the arrest of the hospital’s mortuary in-charge and other senior members of the administration.

Medical Superintendent Dr Nidhi Sareen, however, denied medical negligence claiming that the truck was outsourced. It is also being speculated that the hospital staff mistook the newborn’s body as an amputated limb.

On Tuesday, the baby’s uncle Ashok Kumar said nobody from the hospital had approached them to apologise for the incident.

He insisted that the family has been humiliated and they will fight till the end. “We managed to find the body in time. What could have we done if the truck had left earlier? We would have been still searching for the body,” he said.

Rajesh Kumar Verma, the girl’s father, rubbished claims that the incident was a result of human error. He highlighted that it is hard to believe as the details of the baby was written on the clothes wrapped around her body.

“Currently, the hospital administration is only trying to give random explanation. We would not accept suspension of lower-level staff, the guilty needs to be punished,” he added.

A case under section 297 (trespassing on burial places) of the Indian Penal Code has been filed against two employees of the hospital identified as Pawan, 29 and Satish, 25.