Mumbai: Doctors at KEM Hospital recently amputated the right arm of a 53-day-old premature baby after it turned dark blue/black and gangrenous during an IV procedure.
Ashwini Rahul Chavan was born on June 19 at the gestational age of 27 weeks. He weighed only 1,026 grams at birth. Considering the extreme prematurity and very low birth weight of the baby, doctors admitted him to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU). Over the next few weeks, Ashwini underwent a range of tests and treatments.
Rahul Chavan, the father, told The Free Press Journal that his son underwent a saline IV infusion on July 15. His mother soon noticed blue discolouration on the fingertips of his right hand and informed the nurses on duty. The nurses, however, said everything would be fine, according to Chavan.
By the next day, the discolouration had worsened and spread to the hand and lower forearm, Chavan said.
The doctors consulted orthopaedic and paediatric surgeons and an elective decision was made to amputate the gangrenous region, he said.
"How can doctors and hospital staff be so irresponsible and careless?"
“My question is: how can doctors and hospital staff be so irresponsible and careless? My son’s arm has had to be amputated,” Chavan said. “We came to a government hospital because we could not afford private facilities. But such shocking treatment has made us lose faith in government facilities.”
Additional Municipal Commissioner Dr Sudhakar Shinde has directed the hospital to constitute an enquiry committee under four professors to investigate the case and submit a report in two weeks.
“We have instructed the committee to conduct a detailed enquiry about the possibility of any negligence on the part of treating physicians. The report should be submitted within two weeks and based on it further action will be taken,” Dr Shinde said.
