10 infants die in Bengal hospital in 48 hours
With 25 infant deaths at Malda Medical College and Hospital since Saturday, of which 10 in the last 48 hours, crib deaths are back to haunt the West Bengal government.
“Since Monday night, 10 more babies have died. The total of such deaths now stand at 25 since Saturday,” Principal of Malda Medical College and Hospital Uchhal Kumar Bhadra said.
Rubbishing any kind of negligence behind the death of the babies, Bhadra said: “It is a tertiary care hospital and the number of critical babies brought here are far more than we can take care of.
Hospitals responsible
Moreover, the babies are often brought nearly half-dead. There is no question of negligence on our part”.
However, the families of the infants held the hospital responsible for the deaths.
“There has been a continuous recurrence of baby deaths in this hospital but no modern neo-natal care facility is available. The distance between Kolkata and Malda is over 300 km and most families cannot afford to take their babies to the state capital,” said Dukhiram Mondal, whose only daughter died on Saturday.
“Bringing a baby to this hospital means to leave him or her to the mercy of God. There are no beds, medicines and doctors and nurses are rare to find here,” Mondal said.
Considering the gravity of the situation, Director of Health Services (DHS), Biswaranjan Satpathy, has decided to visit Malda on Wednesday.
