Bihar hospital holds woman in captivity for 12 days over bills

PATNA: A woman allegedly held captive by the management of a private hospital here for 12 days was rescued on Sunday after the intervention of Madhepura MP Rajesh Ranjan alias Pappu Yadav. The patient was kept confined for not paying the hospital bill of Rs 70,000 after delivering a stillborn.

On November 12, Lalita Devi, a resident of Chaura village in Madhepura district, was admitted to Maa Sheetla Emergency Hospital in Agam Kuan area where she delivered a stillborn. “Post treatment, Lalita was asked to pay Rs 1.5 lakh by the hospital. When she delivered a stillborn child, however, the hospital agreed to discharge her for Rs 70,000,” said a police officer.

To arrange such a huge sum, Lalita’s seven-year-old son Kundan took to begging on the streets while her husband Nirdhan Ram somehow managed to collect Rs 50,000 from well-wishers. The amount still fell short and the hospital refused to discharge Lalita, the officer added.

The detention came to light when some local dailies reported Kundan’s ordeal about how he was compelled to beg in order to raise money for his mother’s discharge.

“Lalita was subsequently rescued under police observation and sent to her native place in an ambulance with a constable and a nurse. I will ask the Madhepura civil surgeon to take care of her,” Patna civil surgeon Dr Pramod Jha said.

A case was lodged against the hospital owner Nisha Bharti for posing as a doctor — despite only having done a general nursing and midwifery course — and running the hospital without a registration. Police detained Bharti for interrogation. “Primary investigation revealed that Bharti is the owner of the nursing home. During questioning, however, she claimed to be a part of the hospital administration,” Agam Kuan SHO Kamakhya Narayan Singh said.