A hospital’s cruelty and a mother’s struggle to save her baby

The doctor declared six-month-old Abdullah dead at Dhaka Medical College Hospital where he was taken after private hospital Amar Bangladesh authorities drove out his mother and his twin brother for not paying bills "in due time".

Abdullah, suffering from acute cold complications, died in an ambulance on its way to DMCH on Thursday evening from the private hospital at Shyamoli where he with his brother Ahammed were undergoing treatment at the ICU unit.

"Twins are always a blessing for the parents, I have heard since my childhood. My joy knew no bounds when I gave birth to the twins, but unfortunately I could not save the life of one of them due to the cruelty of the hospital authorities," alleged Ayesha Akter, 32, mother of the twins, while talking to The Business Standard on Friday.

"My babies and I were thrown out of the hospital. They removed the oxygen mask of my baby at the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU). They even tortured me physically. At the PICU room, the hospital owner Golam Sarwar pushed me down to the ground while my son Abdullah was in my lap. My baby got severely injured then. My only fault was I could not pay their charges in time," she added, breaking down in tears.

As the twins had difficulties since their birth, Ayesha tried her best to save their lives. She admitted her babies to Shaheed Suhrawardy Medical College and Hospital on 31 December as they had been suffering from fever. Even after undergoing treatment for three days, their condition did not improve. On 2 January, being lured by a middleman, Ayesha took her sons to Amar Bangladesh Hospital from the Suhrawardy Hospital.

"The doctors there told me that my babies would not survive if they were not admitted to PICU. I immediately agreed. After four days, on Thursday afternoon, they charged around Tk1,26,000 as ICU, medicine and other bills. I could not manage the money at once."

"Having no alternative, I requested the hospital owner to keep Tk50,500 for the time being, and promised that I would pay the rest within a few hours. But they did not pay heed to my words. They hit me and pushed me down to the ground, with my sick child in my lap. They then drove me out of the hospital only for the money."

"My husband could not send money from Saudi Arabia on time. But he had sent around Tk40,000, just two hours after I was driven out of the hospital, to a pharmacy owner adjacent to the hospital. But, we could not save our son Abdullah," she added.    

On Friday noon, Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) detained the hospital owner Md Golam Sarwar, after Ayesha filed a case in the morning with the Mohammadpur Police Station over negligence of duty of the hospital authorities.