Biratnagar, December 14

Nobel Medical College Teaching Hospital of Biratnagar finally released the body of an accident victim after the kin of the deceased made partial payment of the dues accrued over the course of treatment.

Earlier, after news was published about the hospital withholding the body of Dipak Mishra of Katahari Rural Municipality-3, Morang, for not clearing the dues, the Ministry of Health and Population of Province 1 had ordered the hospital to release the body without forcing the kin to pay any money.

Despite this, the hospital released the body last night only after the deceased’s brother Kumar Gautam Mishra paid Rs 152,000 to the hospital.

“Besides the payment of Rs 152,000 to the hospital, I paid Rs 200,000 to the medical store and 36,000 to the hospital canteen before receiving my brother’s dead body,” said Mishra, owner of a small grocery store in Biratnagar.

The body was cremated following a post-mortem at Koshi Zonal Hospital today. According to the deceased’s brother, he had to borrow money from others to clear the dues of the hospital, medical store and canteen.

After an accident on June 16, Dipak had died on Tuesday in the course of treatment. Though Dipak’s family had spent around 1.4 million rupees for his treatment all these months, following the patient’s death on Tuesday the hospital had prevented the kin from receiving the dead body, demanding payment of the dues amounting to some Rs 300,000.

Nobel Medical College manager Narayan Dahal said the hospital had waived off half of the remaining treatment expenses keeping in view the difficulty faced by the deceased’s kin.