India News | Yemen Man in Delhi HC to Direct Private Hospital to Return Passports of Child, Wife
Get latest articles and stories on India at LatestLY. A Yemen national, who along with his wife came to India for medical treatment of their infant son, Monday urged the Delhi High Court to direct a private hospital here to return their passports to enable them to return to their country.
New Delhi, Jul 11 (PTI)A Yemen national, who along with his wife came to India for medical treatment of their infant son, Monday urged the Delhi High Court to direct a private hospital here to return their passports to enable them to return to their country.
The high court, which also took cognisance of a complaint made by the Embassy of the Republic of Yemen to the private hospital concerning the family's sufferings, asked the counsel of Delhi Police and SHO of Madhu Vihar in East Delhi to obtain instructions on the issue.
The counsel for the hospital claimed in the court that it did not have the passports of the wife and child of the petitioner man.
“The court also takes cognisance of the serious complaint which has been made by the Embassy of the Republic of Yemen on June 10, 2022,” Justice Yashwant Varma said.
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The man, in his plea, said received a performa Invoice from the hospital in March this year for the treatment of his son, who was born in July last year, for "shunt revision and excision of the Meningomyelocele and repair of defect surgery" and the hospital's Department of Neurosurgery had given an estimated cost of USD 7,000 to 7500.
He along with his wife and son came to India in March itself and an interpreter assigned to them by the hospital, based in East Delhi, met them at IGI Airport here.
On April 14, 2022, the child was diagnosed with Meningomyelocele and swelling over the lower back and admitted to the hospital and was advised of surgery, the plea said, adding that the interpreter repeatedly asked the man to transfer money to her bank account as well as to another person's account but no invoice was given to him.
Meningocele repair (also known as myelomeningocele repair) is surgery to repair birth defects of the spine and spinal membranes.
On April 20, the first surgery was performed on the child and after five days, he was discharged but the interpreter kept asking the man to deposit more money on May 2, when the minor's condition deteriorated, he was again admitted to the hospital and a second surgery was done.
It said when the man started facing financial difficulties and had no money to pay for the exorbitant demands of the hospital and the interpreter, he requested the institution to discharge the child but the administration asked him to further deposit USD 3500 and also asked him to hand over their original passports on the pretext of completing some formalities.
The plea said the child was discharged, however, despite repeated requests, the details of the medical treatment, medical bill, and receipts/invoices were not provided by the hospital and even the passports were not returned.
Later, the man's passport was returned but not of his wife and child and the interpreter demanded further money after which he approached the Embassy of the Republic of Yemen, it claimed.
The plea said that on June 10, the embassy sent a letter to the hospital stating that as per the Performa Invoice of March 7, the estimated cost of surgery was around USD 7,000 to 7,500 but the petitioner has been charged double the amount.
The embassy also stated that it has received a complaint against the hospital and interpreter that the petitioner has not been given the patient report, bills of treatment, and receipt of payment and that the interpreter refused to return the passport of the infant patient and his mother, the plea said.
It added that the embassy requested the hospital to hand over the passports immediately but nothing was done and the man's money spent on return flight tickets was wasted.
Thereafter, a complaint was made to the police for illegally keeping the passports of the family and also urged the authorities to take action for refund of extra money charged but nothing was done, it said. PTI SKV
(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)