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The Delhi High Court has sought the stand of Fortis Hospital in Shalimar Bagh, the Delhi government and the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) office on a plea moved by a five-year-old suffering from mental and physical paralysis for alleged delay in diagnosis, proper treatment and “concealment of a birth injury”.
A single-judge bench of Justice Jasmeet Singh in its June 14 order issued notice to the respondents and listed the matter for hearing on July 5. The petition filed by the child through his mother has sought the cancellation of registration of the hospital as a nursing home and that two doctors be stopped from working as specialists in the neonatal ICU.
The case is related to five-year-old Devarsh Jain, who suffered severe brain bleeding at birth in August 2017 in Fortis Hospital, Shalimar Bagh. It was diagnosed seven months later and due to an alleged delay in treatment, he suffered paralysis. Devarsh’s parents have alleged that the private hospital deliberately concealed his birth injury and deprived him of timely treatment.
According to the petition filed by Devarsh’s mother Sapna, her child suffered brain hypoxic injury at Fortis Hospital during his birth in 2017. Sapna has alleged that the hospital concealed this injury from her by fabricating Devarsh’s medical records. “Devarsh eventually became permanently vegetative and developed a rare medical condition known as ‘West Syndrome’. He is living in deep pain and suffering from a high degree of epilepsy and cerebral palsy,” the petition said.
The mother alleged that Devarsh remained in the Neo-Natal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) at Fortis Hospital for 11 days after birth after which the doctors at NICU, Dr Vivek Jain and Dr Akhilesh Singh, discharged the child stating that there is no sign of any injury.
However, Sapna claimed that Devarsh would often cry in chronic pain and this went on till 2019 when she took him to another doctor where after an MRI, it was found that the child had suffered an injury at the time of birth.
Meanwhile, Sapna also questioned the educational qualifications of the two doctors in a separate petition. She said that the registration status and educational qualifications of Dr Jain and Dr Singh are not those of specialists.
“It shows that Dr Vivek Jain, who is a Director and Head of the Department of Neonatology in the hospital, has an MBBS degree from Kasturba Medical College in 2004 along with Membership of the Royal College of Paediatrics & Child Health (MRCPCH) from the United Kingdom in 2007. Dr Vivek Jain also has a Fellowship Training in Neonatology from National Neonatology Forum (India) in 2016,” the petition said.
The medical certificate obtained by the Delhi Police investigating officer prima facie revealed that Dr Jain had passed MBBS in 2004 and was only admitted to the membership of the MRCPCH from the United Kingdom in 2007.
In a reply to the court, the Delhi Medical Council (DMC) stated that he had applied online for the registration of his additional qualifications and they accordingly entered the same in their medical register. The DMC also stated that MRCPCH is a postgraduate qualification. The DMC, however, did not mention if Jain completed the course and obtained the certificate of completion of training to be a specialist.
In a written reply to the court, the National Medical Commission confirmed that Dr Singh is only an MBBS doctor.
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