Twin child dies; doctors say mother, who had 2 miscarriages earlier, may be suffering from rare disorder.
There were no tears in her eyes. Her hands didn’t shiver. There was no remorse on her face either after she threw her 45-day-old twin girl out of a hospital bathroom on Tuesday morning. The doctors believe she may be suffering from postpartum psychosis (PPP) syndrome, a rare condition a woman could develop after delivery.
After suffering two miscarriages, Deepika Parmar, 28, delivered twins — a boy and a girl — at a Dahisar clinic in September. She was admitted to the paediatric ward of the civic-run KEM hospital in Parel along with her twins on October 20. The underweight babies were given continuous oxygen supply and later shifted to the neonatal care ward.
Around 4.30am on Tuesday, while an eerie silence crept in the hospital as patients lay asleep, Deepika took her twin girl in her arms, went to the bathroom on the ground floor and threw her from the window. “The baby fell on some of the used mattresses floating on water. However, the right part of her skull was injured and she was bleeding profusely. A rodent had even chewed her earlobe,” Sanjay Tiwari, the security guard on duty, said. The baby died at 9am.
Amid all this, Deepika threw a fit, saying her girl was missing. The hospital authorities went on a wild goose chase, but could not trace her.
Tiwari then monitored the CCTV footage, which showed Deepika taking the baby towards the bathroom. He rescued the baby and took her to the emergency room. However, despite getting medical treatment, the baby did not survive. “We saw Deepika carrying something neatly draped in a white cloth. But she returned empty-handed from the bathroom. When we questioned her, she said she had gone to wash her clothes,” Tiwari said.
The Bhoiwada police has registered a case against Deepika under section 317 of the IPC pertaining to abandonment of a child by parents or a caretaker. “We are waiting for the post-mortem report,” senior police inspector Vikram Patil said.
Doctors treating the Dahisar resident told DNA she took the extreme step since she could not handle two children at a time.
“Deepika maybe suffering from the PPP syndrome and has been kept under observation. She didn’t want to talk about the incident. Her parents told us she doesn’t have a history of problems. We will speak to her husband and gauge her state of mind tomorrow,” Dr Shubhangi Parkar, head of psychiatry at KEM hospital, said.
“The other baby is on oxygen. So far, Deepika has been behaving normally with the boy. Our doctors are monitoring her 24x7,” she said.
“Post delivery, women undergo hormonal changes and can suffer from PPP syndrome. Under such a condition, a woman may not want a child and can become detached to her baby. It is a rare syndrome and mostly goes unnoticed,” explained Dr Paras Kothari, head of the pediatric department, Sion hospital.
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