Gurugram, May 19
Max hospital, Gurugram, has issued a clarification regarding the first case of suspected death due to black fungus in Gurugram. A 28-year-old man allegedly died due to black fungus infection on May 16 at a private hospital here. The youth was identified as Vikas Sharma (28). He was admitted to Max Hospital on May 15 after recovering from Covid-19.
However, the hospital management has mentioned the cause of death as cardiac arrest and said he was also diagnosed with black fungus, according to the death summary.
In a statement given, a Max Health Care (MHC) spokesperson claimed that the victim was already in an extremely poor condition when he was brought to the hospital.
"The 29-year-old patient arrived at the emergency in a critical condition on the morning of May 15. He was bleeding from the nose, complained of nausea, headache, was disoriented and had a severely damaged right eye with loss of vision. He had been ill with Covid since April 23 and was undergoing treatment from outside.
"The patient was on multiple medicines including steroids which were prescribed by his treating doctor since May 5. He was thoroughly investigated which confirmed that he was infected with extensive mucormycosis (black fungus), which had extended extensively including the brain," the spokesperson said.
"The family was explained the poor prognosis and informed that there was chance of 50 per cent in his condition/case, despite high end medication and multiple surgeries. The family agreed and consented for this treatment. An estimate of Rs 10 lakh was shared at the time of admission, involving heavy/high-end drugs and multiple critical surgeries.
"The patient underwent two surgeries the same evening and was shifted to a post-operative ICU at night and was under heavy sedation. However, despite a multidisciplinary team effort, he succumbed to cardiac arrest," he claimed.
The patient's family members had alleged that the hospital had demanded Rs 7.21 lakh as treatment charges just for 24 hours and later the bill was settled at Rs 3.50 lakh.
"The INR 7.2L bill that the family received was a system generated interim bill, which included additional planned surgeries. The final bill was prepared after the unfortunate death of the patient, which was of INR 3.95L and was presented to the patient's attendants for final settlement," he said.
"We strongly deny any allegations by the family/relatives that there was any excessive billing. As a common practice, system-generated interim bills are shared with patient's attendants on a daily basis, which are always revised at the time the final bill is prepared," the hospital statement said further.
Earlier, The deceased's family members said that Vikas had developed Covid symptoms on April 25 and he was admitted to a Rewari based private hospital and after three days of treatment he was discharged from the hospital and was in home isolation and later he was cured of Covid-19.
The family said eventually on May 14 Vikas' health started deteriorating and he lost his voice and vision and even black spots were visible on his face.
Thereafter, the family rushed him to a private hospital where several tests were conducted and all reports were normal but later on May 15, Vikas developed breathing problems and he was again taken to a private hospital where he was referred to the Artimis hospital and due to non availability of beds he was admitted to Max hospital.
"There at the hospital the management had demanded Rs 15 lakh as treatment charges but finally the hospital agreed to diagnose the patient for Rs 10.40 lakh and handed over the estimate to us. We had even submitted Rs 2.50 lakh as advance and Rs 1 lakh was paid via credit card," a family member said.
The family alleged that they suspected that Vikas had died on Saturday (May 15) night but neither doctors nor hospital staff informed them. On Sunday (May 16) morning the doctors declared him dead.
"Just for 24 hours of treatment the hospital handed over a bill of Rs 7.21 lakh and claimed that they had performed nose and throat surgery of the patient. Later when we protested for several hours against such huge amount the hospital authorities refused to hand over the body," he alleged.
The aggrieved family said they will soon file a complaint before the district administration.
"We have no information related with the matter. Also, if someone died in a hospital due to black fungus symptoms that particular hospital will have to inform the state government. The local health department has no such role on this issue," Virender Yadav, chief medical officer (CMO) Gurugram said.
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