A Facebook post where an Indian woman narrated her ordeals dealing with two private hospitals during her mother’s liver transplant treatment has gone viral on the social media. Parul Bhasin Verma, an Atlanta resident, has lodged a complaint against two hospitals, one based in Secunderabad called Yashoda hospital and the other in Delhi BL Kapoor, accusing them of ‘medical kidnapping’ and inflating medical bills.

In her complaint, Parul stated that her 51-year-old mother, Sarita Bhasin was diagnosed with liver cirrhosis at a Delhi hospital on January 2 and was advised a liver transplant. The family approached a liver transplant consultant named Dr. Jyotsna Verma in New Delhi. The family was promised a liver at a short notice. And within a few days, the family received a call from Dr. Verma’s office about a liver from a deceased patient at Yashoda hospital in Secunderabad, but the family was charged Rs. 1 lakh for the information alone.

The family was initially promised a liver for Rs. 23 lakh but on arriving at the hospital they were charged Rs. 27 lakh. They realised that patients were being charged differently for the same procedure. In the end, the family had to pay through the nose. The ICU charges at the hospital was whopping Rs. 1 lakh a day. In the end, the Bhasins had emptied their savings and had acquired substantial debt. After they paid the hospital Rs. 60 lakh, the patient started recovering. This made the family suspicious. By mid-March, Sarita Bhasin was disrcharged from the hospital and the family went back to Delhi.

Once in Delhi, the family entered into an agreement with BL Kapoor Hospital for cheaper medication from outside. But in the first week of April, the hospital authorities insisted on discharging the patient from the ICU and taking her home. The family’s protests fell on deaf ears and ultimately, they had to take her home. But her condition deteriorated and she was taken back to the hospital. The hospital also forced the family to buy medicines from the pharmacy.

By April 20, Sarita developed jaundice. On recommendations from Yashoda Hospital, the doctors installed a stent in the liver to prevent the spread of jaundice to the rest of the body. But by April 23, the infection had spread to the rest of the body and caused multiple organ failure.

On May 7, she succumbed, but a week before her death, she was put on the ventilator. According to Parul’s allegations, the doctors asked the family to pay before they conducted dialysis. The family relented since they didn’t have the courage “kill” her by stopping the treatment.

A few weeks ago, Delhi government had issued a diktat to all the private hospitals, warning them about inflating medical bills. The allegations were denied by both the hospitals who said that they pulled out all stops to save Sarita Bhasin. The News Minute reached out to Dr. Jyotsna Verma who also denied all the allegations, saying that the family was warned beforehand that the surgery would be expensive.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jun 18, 2018 07:27 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).