Post News Network
Berhampur, March 7: Tension gripped MKCG Medical College and Hospital here Saturday over three separate incidents of baby swapping and deaths due to medical negligence. However, timely intervention by MKCG out post police and Baidyanathpur police brought the situation under control.
According to sources, Sunita Basantia of Sunathar village under Purushottampur police station was admitted to the hospital February 20. She delivered a baby boy at 10 pm that day.
As the child was underweight, he was admitted to the special newborn care unit (SNCU) of the hospital. His condition improved after treatment. But, the baby’s bed was exchanged Friday night. When the family members visited Saturday morning, they were shocked to find a newborn baby girl on the bed.
When Sunita’s husband, Shaibaram, asked the concerned hospital staff about his son, the staff insisted that Sunita had given birth to a baby girl. Later, his relatives thronged the hospital demanding their child. Shibaram said both the mother and the baby was in the O&G department of the hospital after the delivery. However, as the condition of the child became critical, he was discharged from the O&G department and admitted to the SNCU. He produced the discharge certificate and blood bank slip, in which, it was mentioned that Sunita delivered a baby boy.
But, as the hospital authorities did not pay any heed to his claims, his family members and relatives along with some social workers staged a demonstration outside the office of hospital superintendent Dr Ashok Kumar Behera.
Even ASHA worker, Dhobani Mohapatra, who admitted Sunita to the hospital, claimed that she had given birth to a baby boy February 20 night.
In another incident, Rashmita Gouda of Keshapur Shashan under Gangapur police station was admitted to the MKCG after she developed labour pain. She delivered a baby boy after a cesarean section. The baby was later admitted to the SNCU. The baby was in healthy till Friday evening. However, the hospital staff informed the family that the boy was dead Saturday morning.
The family alleged that the baby died Friday night due to medical negligence. But the authorities did not inform them deliberately. Members of the family also joined the stir with that of Shibaram’s.
In the third incident, family members of Subhash Chandra Panda (54), who had been admitted to the nephrology department of the hospital for the last 15 days, alleged that he died as the doctor did not attend to him Saturday morning.
When contacted, hospital superintendent Dr Behera said the matter of baby-swapping is being probed. He, however, denied the allegation of deaths due to medical negligence.
