When 32-year-old Sangita Das was wheeled into the labour room on Sunday night, little did she know the trauma she will have to bear soon after.
KOLKATA: When 32-year-old Sangita Das was wheeled into the labour room on Sunday night, little did she know the trauma she will have to bear soon after.
Her male baby, shortly after being delivered prematurely at 1.20 am in one of the city’s premier private hospitals Belle Vue, was declared dead by the nurses attending to her.
However, her husband, Manas Das, who was waiting downstairs, alleges that he had not been informed about the stillborn birth. The baby was left, it is being alleged, for six hours before doctors realised that it was still alive.
“There was no gynaecologist to attend to my wife when she was admitted to the hospital,” Das told reporters. He also alleged the doctor under whom she had been admitted, Gautam Khastagir, was not present during the delivery, nor was any resident medical doctor.
Manas was informed about his son’s ‘death’ several hours later but wasn’t allowed to see the body. It was only after making the funeral arrangements that he held his baby, 10 hours later, and realised its body was still warm. He immediately alerted the doctors. After examination, it was found to be alive, but in a critical condition, and was shifted to another private hospital, AMRI, for better care.
However, Dr Khastagir told a local TV channel that it was a very unusual case of “suspended animation” which occurs in premature deliveries. On allegations that he was not present at the time of delivery, Dr Khastagir told the channel that delivery cases are a team effort and it is not always possible to reach the hospital in time from home.
When asked why the baby was left unattended for six hours, Dr Khastagir said, “when we know someone is dead, we do not undertake any treatment.”
The couple is now planning to sue the hospital but Belle Vue has strongly refuted charges of negligence.
m_madhumita@dnaindia.net
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