BHOPAL: Six tribal infants, including a few one-day old, died in a span of 15 hours at government hospital in Shahdol on Monday night. The health minister Tulsi Silawat ordered a high-level probe into the deaths on Tuesday.
The infants, some of them one-day-old and others two-and-a-half-months-old, died between 1 pm and 4 am on the intervening night of January 13 and 14, said Dr Rajesh Pande, Chief Medical and Health Officer (CMHO), Kushabhau Thakre district hospital. "The infants were admitted in the Sick Newborn Care Unit (SNCU) of the hospital in a serious condition, and efforts to save them proved futile," said CMHO.
Two newborns were admitted to SNCU of the hospital on January 7 and December 30 respectively, informed Pande. The infants, born in remote rural areas, were brought to hospital in critical condition and put on ventilator, he added.
The other four kids had pneumonia complications and were critical, while two were admitted to the paediatric ward, the other two were undergoing treatment in paediatric intensive care unit, said CMHO. “Three infants were put on ventilator, the fourth child was severely critical. The doctors for almost 40 minutes tried hard to save him but the child did not respond to the treatment,” he elaborated.
District collector has constituted a team to look into the cause of the death including if there was any negligence on part of the hospital staff, said CMHO. The team will also ascertain if there was any spread of viral diseases in the area form where the children had come.
Minister for panchayat and rural development Kamleshwar Patel also visited the hospital to take stock of the situation. "A high-level team will probe the incident and submit its report soon, based on which action will be taken against concerned staff," he said.
