Gurugram hospital withholds body over unpaid Rs 18 lakh bill
Kin take corpse to Shahjahanpur in UP after NHRC chief steps in
A dispute over an unpaid hospital bill took a serious turn following the death of a 30-year-old man from Shahjahanpur, Uttar Pradesh, at Medanta Hospital in Gurugram, with the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) stepping in.
According to family members, they had already paid Rs 23 lakh towards the man’s treatment after arranging money from their savings and through borrowing. The treatment continued for several days, but the patient could not be saved.
The dispute began after his death, when the family was told that another Rs 18 lakh was payable. The relatives said they were unable to arrange such a large amount immediately and requested that the body be handed over to them.
The matter then reached NHRC chairman Priyank Kanoongo. In a post on X, Kanoongo said the body of the 30-year-old man was not being handed over to his family despite Rs 23 lakh having already been paid.
“At Medanta Hospital in Gurugram, the body of a 30-year-old man from Shahjahanpur, Uttar Pradesh, is not being handed over to his family following his death. The family has already paid Rs 23 lakh and is now being asked to pay another Rs 18 lakh. The hospital is so defiant that it is neither listening to the administration nor following the Supreme Court’s orders or the NHRC guidelines. I am now going to the hospital myself to deal with this,” said Kanoongo.
This post, however, brought the dispute into the public domain and marked a sharp intervention by the rights body. Following the warning, the hospital management handed over the body to the family without collecting the additional Rs 18 lakh, according to the inputs available. The relatives subsequently left for their home district, Shahjahanpur, with the body. The exact medical condition for which the man had been admitted has not been disclosed. No information on the matter has been provided by the hospital management in the material available.
The episode has also triggered anger on the social media, with users questioning the practice of withholding bodies over unpaid bills and calling for strict action against hospitals found violating directions concerning the dignity and rights of the deceased.
The case has, therefore, moved beyond a family’s disputed hospital bill, putting the focus on whether financial disputes can be allowed to come in the way of handing over a dead patient to the family.
