With the medical staff being accused of negligence, the state government on Monday ordered an inquiry into the incident.
A premature and underweight infant died of burns in the paediatric ward of the Government Medical College and Hospital (GMC&H) in Nagpur on Sunday. With the medical staff being accused of negligence, the state government on Monday ordered an inquiry into the incident.
The infant was one of the male twins born more than a month prematurely to Durga, 22, and Praveen Kale, 30. The nurse should be sacked for criminal negligence, Kale said. He is still to inform his wife about the tragedy.
Kale said the infant died of burns caused by a warmer kept too close to its cradle, alongside his twin. The medical attendants, however, said someone from the families of other babies could have inadvertently moved the stool on which the warmer had been kept too close to the cradle, warming the infant to death.
“My mother-in-law was near the babies all through the night and she kept requesting the nurse to tend to them because she felt something was wrong,” Kale said. “But the nurse did not pay any attention. My baby’s right half was completely burnt.”
Kale’s other child, which weighs 1.2kg, too, is serious, according to GMC medical staff. “When the twins were brought here, it did not seem they would survive,” a senior doctor at the paediatric ward said.
Dr Vijaykumar Gavit, Maharashtra’s health minister, visited the hospital’s paediatric ward along with Anil Deshmukh, minister for civil supplies, on Monday and ordered an investigation into the incident. Gavit also promised to upgrade the facilities at the hospital. Dr Abhimanyu Niswade, the college’s acting dean, will head the inquiry team.
Kale, a farm labourer from Khedi-Karyat village, about 50km from Nagpur, shifted the babies to GMC&H from a private hospital two days ago. “I could not afford the private hospital bills,” he said. “I have already spent more than Rs60,000 on my wife’s delivery and keeping the infants in an incubator there.”
Kale’s twins were delivered by caesarean section at Get Well Hospital on February 17. The premature babies were kept at the paediatric care centre, but Kale said it cost him Rs6,000 a day. “On the 20th, we shifted the babies to GMC&H when doctors at Get Well said it was safe to do so.”
Kale’s wife is unaware of the tragedy. “She is still recuperating; we haven’t told her anything,” he said.
Kale’s cousin, Nandkishor, on Sunday informed Deshmukh about the incident. Kale is from Deshmukh’s home constituency Katol-Narkhed.
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