On February 7, 6-year-old Sai Pravalika died in Gandhi Hospital after being critical for 62 days because the hospital allegedly gave her contaminated saline.
The post-mortem will be conducted on Thursday morning, exactly 21 days after her death.
Dharawath Bikshapathy, father of Prabalika, was informed by Chilkalaguda Police Station in Secunderabad on Wednesday that the post-mortem will be conducted at their native place in Jangaon district.
“We are still trying to cope with the grief of losing my daughter. Today morning, the police called and said that they need to dig up her body and conduct the post-mortem. I filed the case in December, and now 21 days after her death, they want to conduct a post-mortem?” Bikshapathy told TNM.
Prabalika was admitted to the Gandhi Hospital on December 7, for pneumonia and high fever.
A few days later, Bikshapathy alleged that she was administered an intravenous fluid, after which her complexion turned reddish and she started shivering.
Bikshapathy claimed that he noticed a yellowish fungal material and an insect in the fluid. However, by the time he noticed the insect in the IV (intravenous) bag, half of its contents had already been administered.
Since then, Prabalika had been critical and was battling for her life in the hospital, he said.
Back then, J Venkateshwar Reddy, Superintendent of Gandhi Hospital said that patients like Prabalika, who suffer from Neuronal Ceroid Lipofuscinosis, have a shortened lifespan with death occurring between the age of 6 and 13 years.
“On the day she died, they told half an hour late. Before they told me, police and ambulances were informed. If they wanted, they could have conducted the post-mortem then. But that day, they were in a hurry to send us back,” he claimed.
He alleged that this was done to harass him as he had filed a complaint.
“He filed a complaint on December 15. The case is still under investigation, that is why we are conducting the exhumation, which is a post-mortem after the body has been buried. It will be conducted in their native place by the doctors,” said K Srinivasulu, Inspector in Chilkalaguda Police Station.
Earlier, it was reported that the Telangana State Medical Services and Infrastructure Development Corporation had said that the saline bottles in the batch given to Pravalika at the hospital, had no contamination.
“We have checked the batch and also carried out random checking of other bottles and it was found that there was no contamination in the saline bottles. The German company, which has a tie-up with the corporation, has also carried out internal investigations in their unit and they too have not found any contamination in their batches,” a senior officer in the Corporation told Deccan Chronicle.