Legal notice served to United Hospital over death of WB official's mother
Published : Saturday, 2 May, 2020 at 12:26 AM, Update: 02.05.2020 12:33:24 AM, Count : 1743
A Supreme Court lawyer on Thursday sent a legal notice against United Hospital Limited asking for explanations alleging that the hospital's doctors and medical staff's professional misconduct, negligence and misbehaviour caused the death of a World Bank official's mother.
The lawyer, Md Golam Mostafa (Shaheen), sent the legal notice on behalf of Ziauddin Hyder, senior health specialist for health, nutrition and population global practice in Cambodia and Lao PDR, World Bank, to the hospital's managing director Faridur Rahman Khan and chief executive officer M Faizur Rahman to explain their position in 15 days.
A copy of the legal notice obtained by New Age said that Zia's mother Mahmuda Khatun of Sonargaon Janapath of Uttara in the capital was admitted to the hospital on April 12 midnight by submitting a COVID-19 negative certificate issued by the Institute of Epidemiology, Disease Control and Research dated April 12.
As Mahmuda's condition deteriorated and she showed breathing difficulties, the hospital took her to its intensive care unit and provided oxygen support through artificial ventilation facilities.
Virtually, she was under life support, the notice read.
On April 14, the hospital's medical staff and doctors informed Zia's brothers that the hospital had received a second COVID-19 test report from IEDCR on April 13 which indicated that the patient was COVID-19 positive and decided to discharge her by disconnecting the life-support equipment.
Mahmuda's sons were asked to transfer her to a hospital with COVID-19 treatment facilities.
The notice read that Mahmuda's children expressed serious concerns over the hospital's abrupt decision and argued against discharging her without maintaining the life-support devices.
Mahmuda went through a third COVID-19 test on April 20 and she was tested negative.
'This raises question about the validity of the test results that was dated 13th April 2020, for which my client's brothers was not given an original certificate,' the notice read.
In addition, the client's mother's gender was referred to as 'male' in the photocopied certificate that was provided by the hospital dated 13th April 2020, the notice read.
The notice alleged that after receiving the bills of Tk 1,81,846, the hospital immediately discharged Mahmuda and, despite her worst physical condition, the medical staff and doctors abruptly removed her ventilation facilities, including oxygen support, in spite of her children's requests not to remove them.
Her children also in vain requested the hospital staff to supply an ambulance equipped with mobile ventilation and oxygen support for transferring her to another hospital.
It alleged that the hospital doctors and staff did not show minimum medical professional responsibilities towards such a critical patient.
It said that in absence of the artificial ventilation facility during her transport from United Hospital to Kuwait Moitri Friendship Hospital her condition deteriorated into a deep coma and it was one of the contributing factors that caused her death.
The notice said that Mahmuda died on April 24 from cardiac failure while in a state of deep coma.
The notice warned that if the respondents failed to explain within the stipulated time, his client instructed him for legal actions against the hospital and its staff.