Tamil Nadu Hospital ‘Treated’ Dead Man for 3 Days, Family Alleges

CHENNAI:
A family from Tamil Nadu’s Nagapattinam district on Saturday alleged that a private hospital in Thanjavur had charged them for three days of medical treatment to their kin after his death.
In a complaint lodged with Thanjavur south police station, Subash, son of the deceased N Sekar (55) said the private hospital kept his father’s body for three days, claiming that they were still treating him and charged the family for this period.
“My father was suffered from stomach pain on September 9. Therefore we admitted him to a local hospital at Nagapattinam. As the doctor referred him to a private hospital in Thanjavur, we took him there on September 10. The hospital charged us Rs 5 lakh for his medical expenses and further they asked us to pay Rs 3 lakh to continue the treatment on Friday.
“Hence, we decided to shift my father to Thanjavur government medical college hospital. When we took him there, the doctors who examined my father said that he died at least three days before,” Subash saidin his complaint.
G Palanisamy, a former Communist Party of India MLA and kin of the deceased, said that the private hospital failed to inform them about Sekar’s death.
“Instead of informing us about Sekar’s demise, they asked us to pay the fee. How they can treat a deceased person for three days,” Palanisamy said.
When contacted, a senior police officer of Thanjavur south police station said they are waiting for the post-mortem report to come to a decision.
“On receiving the complaint, we requested the post-mortem procedure to know when Sekar died. If their allegation is true, we will take proper action,” the officer said.
However, Vinoth Kumar, administrative officer of the private hospital, denied the allegation, saying that the family of deceased is trying to defame the hospital.
“We have the records to prove that the patient died on Friday. However, we are waiting for the autopsy report. How an established hospital like us could keep a deceased man for three days? We suspect our competitors have triggered the family to raise this issue to defame us. We have filed defamation suits in a local court against this,” Vinoth said.