CHENNAI: A private hospital at Tiruvottiyur in Chennai has today refused to give the body of a 56-year-old Corona patient who died since the family did not pay the balance amount of hospital bill of Rs.4 lakhs.
Tension prevailed at Aakash Hospital in Tiruvottiyur in Chennai where E.Anbazhagan (from a fisherman family) got admitted on 16th June 2020. After 19 days of COVID treatment, he died at around midnight last night (4th July 2020). The family had reportedly paid Rs.3.5 lakh to the hospital during the treatment period while the total bill given by the Aakash Hospital was Rs.7.5 lakh, till yesterday.
“I was at the hospital last night. After I came home I got a phone call at 12.15 am midnight that my brother Anbazhagan had passed away. Immediately I went there and hospital staff started asking me to pay the balance Rs.4 lakh before taking the body,” Mr.E.Arumugam told ‘Lotus Times’ news website over phone today evening (5th July 2020).
Family members had pleaded that Anbazhgan’s is an ordinary family with no financial background. “The initial amount paid was borrowed from various sources and paid for the hospital bill. We told the hospital management that such a huge amount of remaining Rs.4 lakhs cannot be paid and there is no source. Only after a few lawyers and media came to the hospital, they handed over my brother’s body,” Anbazhagan’s brother E.Arumugam has said and added that they are not aware that Corona treatment is so costly.
