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Another Little Boy Died Of Dengue Because He Was Turned Away By Delhi's Top Hospitals

Doctors Told Us Our Son Does Not Have Dengue, Says Grieving Father Of Child Who Died Of Dengue
A Delhi municipal worker fumigate a residential area to prevent mosquitos from breeding in New Delhi, India, Thursday, Sept. 26, 2013. Dengue fever, a mosquito-borne disease, is on the rise with more than a dozen deaths and over 1,000 cases reported in the city, according to the official Municipal Corporation of Delhi report. (AP Photo/Manish Swarup)
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A Delhi municipal worker fumigate a residential area to prevent mosquitos from breeding in New Delhi, India, Thursday, Sept. 26, 2013. Dengue fever, a mosquito-borne disease, is on the rise with more than a dozen deaths and over 1,000 cases reported in the city, according to the official Municipal Corporation of Delhi report. (AP Photo/Manish Swarup)

Another little boy, who was turned away by four top hospitals in Delhi, has succumbed to dengue fever and his family alleged that doctors at insisted he did not have the disease despite testing positive.

On September 8, seven-year-old Avinash Rout from Odisha had died after allegedly being turned away by five city hospitals. His parents committed suicide that same night by jumping off the terrace of their fourth floor residence.

According to reports, Aman, 6, from Delhi's Srinivaspuri is the tenth victim of dengue this season.

Aman's father Manoj Sharma said he was diagnosed with dengue at a private hospital in Srinivaspuri and was then taken to Safdarjung Hospital on September 9.

He's gone. That's it. Everything else is just noise & futility. And he was just 5. pic.twitter.com/58DOj1oyPC

— Shiv Aroor (@ShivAroor) September 15, 2015

"The doctors at Safdarjung hospital said that our boy does not have dengue and thus there is no need of getting him admitted. Also, at that point of time, our son's condition was a bit stable so we brought him home. But on Friday his condition worsened and we took him to Jeewan hospital in Maharani Bagh where he was admitted till Saturday night," PTI quoted him as saying.

"At 2:30 AM the doctors there told us that his condition was critical and they do not have the equipment to handle such cases and thus we should shift him to a bigger hospital," he said.

The family then took him to Max Saket, Moolchand and Batra but the hospitals said beds were not available. They then took Aman to Safdarjung where he was admitted for a couple of hours. The next day Aman's condition deteriorated and the family shifted him to Holy Family Hospital on Okhla road where he tested positive for dengue and passed away on Sunday evening.

"Our complaint is against Safdarjung hospital because of which our son was without medication for around 24 hours. Doctors there told us that our son does not have dengue though we carried the report of a private hospital where he had tested postitive for dengue. If this is the condition of a government hospital, where will the people go," he said.

Meanwhile, Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia today issued a mandatory directive that children be dressed in full sleeved shirts, full pants and salwar kameez for the next one month to avoid mosquito bites.

Sisodia has directed schools to allow children to wear full sleeves clothes of any colour, irrespective of whether it is the school uniform or not, NDTV reported.

"It is heartbreaking. We have become blind in the race to make more and more profit. We shouldn't forget our humanity. Nothing would have been lost if the hospital had treated the child. Would it have affected their profit margin so much?" NDTV quoted him as saying.

A magisterial probe has been ordered into the tragic death of Rout. Delhi has seen a spate of dengue cases and Union Health Minister JP Nadda said the Centre has asked the Delhi Government to increase the number of beds in government-run hospitals and to initiate action against private ones for over-charging afflicted patients.

The family of Aman told NDTV that through the night they took the child from hospital to hospital and couldn't secure a bed for him anywhere, leading to his death.

It is completely unacceptable that some hospitals didn't accept a patient n he died. Strict action wud be taken against them

— Arvind Kejriwal (@ArvindKejriwal) September 12, 2015

"We kept roaming around the city through the night, we couldn't save him. We did what we could," Aman's father told the channel.

"We have ordered magisterial enquiry to probe the whole incident. The area distrist magistrate has been asked to scan the CCTV footages from the cameras installed near the five hospitals to establish the sequence of the events," Delhi Health Minister Satyendra Jain was quoted as saying by PTI, referring to the death of Rout.

Five hospitals, Moolchand, Max Saket, Saket City hospital, Akash hospital and Irene hospital were issued showcause notices by Delhi government on Saturday and asked to explain why their registration should not be cancelled for their alleged refusal to admit Rout.

As per the August 28 advisory, issued by Delhi government's health department, no hospital, be it private or government, should deny admission to a patient suffering from dengue. Also, with dengue cases assuming alarming proportions, Delhi government has also ordered all government hospitals to open 'Fever Clinics' at their premises to detect the disease at the primary level.

As per the municipal corporation's fresh data released, 613 cases of dengue have been reported in the last one week and a total 1,872 patients have tested positive for the vector borne disease till September 12.

A 43-year-old man succumbed to the disease at the Lal Bahadur Shastri hospital yesterday, according to PTI. Hospital authorities said the patient had come in a critical condition and was admitted on September 11.

"He was brought to the hospital in a critical condition. He had internal bleeding and his platelets count were less than 20,000. He was immediately shifted to Intensive Care Unit (ICU). Our doctors made efforts to resuscitate the patient but he passed away on September 12 morning. He had private report of dengue positive," said a senior doctor.

This is the national capital's worst dengue outbreak in last five years, media reported. The state government has also launched a helpline number -- 011-23307145 -- to provide information on the disease.

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This article exists as part of the online archive for HuffPost India, which closed in 2020. Some features are no longer enabled. If you have questions or concerns about this article, please contact indiasupport@huffpost.com.