The Delhi High Court on Monday ordered the Safdarjung Hospital and other authorities concerned to ensure that post-mortem of a two-year-old child, who succumbed to injuries after falling from the terrace of her house, is conducted and the mortal remains are handed over to the family on Monday itself.
A Bench of Justices Siddharth Mridul and Rajnish Bhatnagar said, “This has to be done today. We don’t want any delay when it comes to this.” The Bench said that the body of the girl child, who died on Sunday morning, shall be positively released by Monday night and asked the authorities to report compliance on Tuesday morning.
“A two-year-old child has passed away. When will you release the body of the child?” the Bench asked the authorities during the hearing.
The High Court’s direction came after the parents of the child said they were being forced to run from pillar to post to get the body and perform the last rites. Advocate Dhananjai Jain, appearing for the parents pro bono, said the child was not given proper treatment by the doctors at the hospital.
The parents stated in their plea that their child succumbed to injuries due to “sheer medical negligence and apathy” of the Safdarjung Hospital. They have sought the registration of a case of medical negligence against the hospital.
On May 7, around 6 p.m., baby Supriya fell from the second-floor terrace of her residence in Rani Bagh and suffered serious head injuries. She was immediately rushed to Bhagwan Mahavir Hospital, which then referred her to the Safdarjung Hospital.
After reaching Safdarjung Hospital around 7.30 p.m., the child was not given any immediate attention and after much persuasion, she was attended to “superficially” and a CT Scan was conducted later in the evening, said the plea.
Until the report of the CT Scan came out around 11.30 p.m., the child was not taken for any intensive care or critical care unit and was left with the family on a stretcher.
“The child was not admitted to ICU, nor her pulse, BP and other vitals parameters were monitored,” the plea said, adding that she was left to die in the general ward without any medical support.
During the hearing, the High Court was informed by a Delhi police officer that a medical board is being set up for conducting a post-mortem of the child.
