How India takes care of its babies!

Eleven babies die at BC Roy

Source :TIMES NEWS NETWORK 

Kolkata:Crib deaths returned to haunt the BC Roy Post-Graduate Institute of Paediatric Sciences yet again on Wednesday. Eleven babies reportedly died at the hospital in 40 hours, including four on Wednesday 
morning. 
    While the hospital authorities claimed that the infants had been brought in a critical state and couldn’t have been saved, some of the parents alleged negligence on the part of the hospital. It should be mentioned here that more than 20 infants had died in this hospital in three days in June this year. 
    While seven deaths were reported between Monday night and Tuesday evening, four more babies died on Wednesday morning. There was panic as patients’ families wanted to shift their babies from the hospital. 
    A five-day-old girl was the last to die on Wednesday morning. Brought to the hospital from a nursing home, the child had apparently been suffering from an internal hemorrhage and needed blood. “I was asked to get blood and had rushed out to get it. But before I had reached the blood bank, I got a call from the hospital saying that my granddaughter was dead,” said Kanailal Panda. Even as his daughter-in-law Moumita cried inconsolably, Panda said he had no complaint against the hospital. “It was actually too late,” he said. 
    Others like Benoy Kumar Das, whose niece was admitted with a respiratory disorder, alleged that treatment was slow. “They are dilly-dallying which could be dangerous. My niece, for instance, was supposed to be shifted to the surgical ward but was 
kept back. We have no idea what prompted them to take the decision,” said Das. 
    Superintendent DK Pal said 5-6 deaths a day were normal at the hospital. “Only the most critical cases are referred to us so mortality is high. Often, the patients are brought to us in an irretrievable condition. it was no different this time. Most of the babies which died were grossly underweight and carried infections. They wouldn’t have survived in any hospital. Only two of the babies were more than three months old. There was no negligence on our part, said Pal. Eighteen deaths had been reported at the hospital in June. While parents had alleged negligence, the authorities had put forward a similar argument — that the babies were suffering from infections and were in a critical state.

An inconsolable Moumita Panda, whose five-day-old daughter died at BC Roy hospital on Wednesday