West Bengal health care at its worst

‘Acid in place of antiseptic’ sears mom after tragedy

OUR CORRESPONDENT

Lalbag (Murshidabad), Nov. 2: A woman who delivered a stillborn baby at a government hospital in Murshidabad suffered burn injuries after she was allegedly cleaned with an “acid-like lotion” following childbirth. Sikha Bibi, 30, said she felt a “burning sensation” in her waist and legs when the lotion was applied at Lalbag sub-divisional hospital on Monday. Late tonight, the supervising nurse of the labour room was suspended on charges of “negligence” following Mamata Banerjee’s instructions. “The chief minister asked the health department to suspend the nurse for negligence of duty,” a government source said. Hospital superintendent Saswati Nag said an “outsider” had applied the lotion. Although she refused to give details, hospital sources said Sikha’s family had hired an ayah to look after her after she was admitted, an illegal practice common in government hospitals. Sikha admitted she had an ayah with her in the labour room but could not say who cleaned her. A doctor working in a government hospital said: “In all government hospitals, the family of each patient is given a card to stay with him or her in the ward. But many families give the card to ayahs. On several occasions, the nurses neglect their duty because of the presence of ayahs. This practice should stop.” Nag said Sikha, whose husband Jinnat Sekh is in jail for allegedly smuggling cattle, could have suffered an “allergy” because of the “lotion”. The “lotion” will be sent to the State Forensic Science Laboratory in Calcutta for tests. A gynaecologist working in the Lalbag hospital said usually, antiseptics such as Dettol or Savlon were mixed with water and used to clean mothers after childbirth. But the doctor who spoke on the ayahs said “phenyl or carbolic acid is also kept in labour rooms to clean the rooms after childbirth”. But gynaecologist Shyamal Chatterjee, the head of the three-member team of doctors formed by Nag to probe the incident, said “no acid was found in the labour room”. But some doctors in the hospital said the inquiry team visited the room today and the substance used to clean Sikha “could have already been removed by then”. An officer of Murshidabad police station, where Sikha’s relatives lodged a complaint yesterday, said the “areas where the lotion was applied had turned black”. Sikha’s brother-in-law Wasif Sheikh said the family members came to know about the injuries when they came to the hospital yesterday afternoon after burying the baby. “When my wife visited her, Sikha showed her the burn injuries. We informed the hospital superintendent immediately. She assured us that she would look into the matter,” Wasif, a farmer, said. Additional superintendent of police Mrinal Majumdar said: “We have received the complaint and started a probe.” The family has also complained against the hospital authorities to B.P. Shau, the district’s deputy chief medical officer of health. In September, a patient at Calcutta’s SSKM Hospital had suffered burn injuries when a nurse rubbed carbolic acid instead of rectified spirit on her left hand before giving her an injection. A probe revealed that carbolic acid, used as disinfectant or germicide, was stored in a bottle meant for spirit in the nurses’ station of the ward.