Mumbai: The parents of a week-old girl who lost her life in the Marol ESIC Hospital fire last week have been denied full compensation of Rs 10 lakh, with officials allegedly claiming that the death of their daughter may have been natural as she was anyway critical.
The baby had died on Friday, four days after the fire broke out in the hospital, killing 11 people.
According to a report in the Times of India, the officials believe that since the baby was born prematurely and was “critical since birth,” there exists a possibility that her death was natural. The hospital administration has not yet responded to the allegation.
The parents of the girl were handed over a cheque of Rs 2 lakh, which was the amount stipulated for seriously injured, at an event organised by ESIC at Panchdeep Bhavan, Andheri on Monday.
Soon after, Anil and Lalita Logavi were given another cheque of the same amount for the girl's twin brother, who is admitted to the NICU of Holy Spirit Hospital, said the report.
The 27-year-old mother told TOI that while the ESIC officials distributed the compensation money to the afflicted families, their daughter’s name featured among the ‘critically injured.’
"The officials insisted that we accept the cheque. An officer told us to take whatever amount we were given now and take up the matter with ESIC higher-ups later," the father said.
The babies were delivered through C-section at the ESIC hospital three days before the fire. Even though the baby girl’s condition had deteriorated and she suffered considerable weight loss, doctors instilled hope in the parents and said that babies as little as 500-600 grams survive nowadays with good NICU care.
Lalita says the crucial 45-60 minutes that the baby spent after being snapped away from the ventilator after the fire and during her transfer to Holy Spirit Hospital stacked the odds against her. "She got oxygen support in the ambulance. But who is to say that the smoke inhalation combined with the interruption in ventilatory support didn't kill her?" she asked.
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