18-month-old in coma after civic-run hospitals turn him away

Family spends all night rushing from one hospital to another in ambulance; now the child is a coma post-surgery

MUMBAI: For 27-year-old Shikha Devi from Thane, the last two weeks have been filled with fear and helplessness as she tried to save her 18-month-old son Priyanshu.

18-month-old in coma after civic-run hospitals turn him away

The toddler is now in a coma after allegedly being denied treatment at two major civic hospitals, then Wadia Hospital, and then forced into expensive private care.

Shikha and her three children moved to Thane from Uttar Pradesh after her husband died a few months ago, when she moved in with her sister in Thane. Her ordeal began when Priyanshu developed high fever in the second week of September. For nearly a week, the family gave him medicines at home and his condition seemed to improve. But, soon, he started vomiting continuously and began shutting his eyes.

Panicked, the family rushed Priyanshu to major civic-run hospitals in Mumbai. At Sion Hospital, doctors allegedly told them Priyanshu needed an ICU bed but none was available. At KEM Hospital, they received the same answer. Wadia Hospital, a public charitable hospital, too, allegedly turned them away.

“They kept saying there were no beds. He needed an ICU and they had no space for him, is what they told us. They asked us to figure it out on our own and go to a different hospital. I begged them, I cried, but nobody admitted him. We spent all night moving around in an ambulance with the child burning with fever, but no hospital gave us a bed,” said his aunt, Phulmati Sahani, who has been speaking for the family.

By dawn, the ambulance driver finally took them to Sion Lions Club Hospital, a private facility. Priyanshu was admitted immediately and diagnosed with fluid in the brain. He underwent surgery the next day. “Doctors told us he would wake up in four hours. But he never did. He has been unconscious since then,” Sahni said.

The bills soon spiralled. The family paid nearly ₹1.75 lakh towards bed and doctors’ fees and spent another ₹1 lakh on medicines. After surgery, the hospital allegedly demanded ₹6 lakh more for the treatment. “We told them we had already borrowed from everyone we knew. We had nothing left. We went there only because government hospitals refused us,” Sahni said.

For eight days, as Priyanshu remained in a coma, the family begged the hospital to reduce its demand. His father had died just eight months earlier after developing a sudden fever. After that, Shikha and her three children moved to Thane, where Sahni lives. Sahni works odd jobs to support the household.

Finally, after a social worker intervened, the hospital reduced the bill to ₹50,000. Once this was paid, the boy was discharged. On Friday night, around 9 pm, he was taken to Sion Hospital, where doctors admitted him immediately given his critical condition.

Since then, Priyanshu has undergone repeated CT scans, MRI scans and blood tests. The fluid has been cleared but he remains unconscious. Medicines, injections and even blood have allegedly had to be arranged by the family, as the hospital has allegedly asked them to source supplies from outside.

“We expected a civic hospital to treat him fully. But even here, every day, we are told to buy medicines and everything ourselves,” Sahni said.

Shikha waits outside the ward. “She has stopped eating and drinking. She just sits silently. We don’t know if the child will wake up,” Sahni said.

A senior official from Sion Hospital said, “Many times, there is no space in the ICU, so it might have happened that we were unable to admit the patient earlier. However, now that we have space, we have admitted them. As for the issue of the patient having to purchase medicines and arrange for blood, that is not right. They should meet us about it, and we will take appropriate action.”

KEM dean Sangeeta Ravat declined to comment until confirmation with the hospital. The CEO of Wadia Hospital did not respond to messages and calls from HT.