Neonatal death sparks tension at Niloufer Hospital

Hyderabad: Death of an infant triggered tension at the State-run Niloufer hospital in the city on Sunday.

The baby was born at 2 am on Sunday in Kamareddy, but suffered from birth asphyxia (deprivation of oxygen to newborn infant that can cause harm to brain) problem.

Upon advice of doctors there, the parents shifted the baby to Niloufer hospital by 7 am on Sunday and the doctors there attended on the baby immediately.

However, the baby's condition worsened as oxygen was not reaching the body and she was declared dead around 12 noon. Shocked parents put the blame on negligence of Niloufer doctors and medical staff.

Mother Balamani said her baby was given IV fluids, but after the completion of the first bottle the staff did not put on the second bottle immediately, she alleged.

Despite being alerted about the completion of the first bottle, the housekeeping staff told her to move out for cleaning purpose, but the baby was not attended promptly, she alleged.

The aggrieved parents, along with the deceased baby, and relatives staged a protest on the hospital premises.

Other parents, who were getting treatment for their children in the hospital, also joined their protest lending support to them that hospital staff were neglecting treatment of children.

Police rushed to the spot to avert any untoward incident. Paediatric HoD Dr Ravi Kumar said the hospital staff put in their best efforts to save the child but unfortunately the condition deteriorated leading to death.

The baby had suffered from birth asphyxia and was in stage-3, which was a very critical condition unlike in stage-1 and stage-2, where chances of survival are better, he said.

Responding to allegations of negligence on the part of the staff, he said that they were trying to serve better children with the available human resources.

There is severe crunch of nursing staff and each nurse has to take care of 10 patients at a time and it could lead to parents feeling unhappy that their child was not being attended promptly, Dr Ravi Kumar said.