Baby in morgue: Father mulls legal action against hospital

Summary:

• Baby’s father plans to lodge a police report against the hospital for holding the baby’s remains over unpaid bills.

• Hospital claims burial arrangements stalled due to the father’s absence and lack of cooperation from the mother.

• Father is considering suing netizens for slander over false claims about his marital status.

The father of the deceased baby allegedly kept in a morgue for over two weeks for unpaid bills would be lodging a police report against Razif Maternity Hospital (HBR) in Klang, Selangor.

Counsel Ahmad Zaharil Muhaiyar, speaking on behalf of the baby’s father Safwan Roshdy, said the latter is mulling legal action against the hospital.

“We are considering legal action against the hospital for keeping the baby’s remains for 16 days just because the father couldn’t settle the bills,” Berita Harian reported Zaharil as saying today.

However, the lawyer mentioned that they may need to wait until the police and Health Ministry finish investigating the matter first.

On Tuesday, the incident went viral on social media after the founder of the Special Funeral Van Unit “Mr Wan Cai Official” shared the story on their Facebook account.

Wan Cai reportedly revealed that his team faced challenges handling the baby’s remains, which were completely frozen.

“We had to use warm water mixed with tap water to soften the body and joints of the little angel,” he explained.

Sinar Harian also reported Wan Cai claiming the mother was detained and not allowed to leave the ward until the bill was fully settled.

Hospital refutes claims

HBR refuted the allegations saying the baby’s burial permit was signed, and the husband was asked to arrange the burial the following day.

However, the hospital claimed that the husband left the premises and did not claim the corpse. The mother informed the hospital the next day that she could not settle the bill of RM2,480 and claimed the husband was responsible for arranging the burial.

The hospital added that there was no progress over the days and repeated attempts by the hospital to resolve the matter, including contacting family members, failed as the woman refused to provide their details.

“The husband came to visit her for a few minutes once every two to three days. Attempts to talk to him about the burial failed,” the hospital claimed.

Slanderous netizens

Zaharil said his client is also mulling legal action against netizens who slandered him on social media.

He also said they have identified several users who disparaged his client, including accusing him of being unmarried.

“We have given them three hours (until 12am today) to delete the slanderous postings.

“Cease making baseless accusations. We have identified (the netizens) including those who made live TikTok streams,” Zaharil added.

On that note, Safwan, 22, said he was disappointed by the baseless accusations levelled at him, including claims that he was not married, adding he would leave it to his counsel for further action.

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