Days after a government committee gave a clean chit to doctors at the state-run Cheluvamba Hospital here following a series of maternal deaths last November, trouble returned to haunt the healthcare centre on Tuesday.
A couple from KR Pet in the neighbouring Mandya district lodged a complaint at the Devaraja police station here, alleging medical negligence by doctors for the death of their newborn.
Chandre Gowda from Mudugere, KR Pet taluk, said his wife Shobha had delivered a baby boy on Tuesday morning. Shortly afterwards the staff told them that the baby had died. The couple demanded an explanation from the doctors, saying the baby was healthy. In their complaint to the police, they said the staff had “manhandled” Shobha when she was in labour and that they found injury marks on the baby’s head.
Another body found
Amid the controversy came news that a baby girl was found dead in a clogged commode in the hospital’s toilet. When the hospital administration checked the register, they found that six stillborn babies — five boys and a girl — had died between Sunday and Tuesday.
They suspected the baby found dead in the toilet was delivered on Monday by Roopa, the wife of a man named Murthy from Krishnapura village in Nanjangud taluk, Mysuru district.
The police summoned Murthy and asked him about the baby. He said he buried the body on Monday itself. The police asked him to produce the body. Murthy had the body exhumed by his relatives who brought it to the police station in the early hours of Wednesday. But the police remained unconvinced, angering Murthy and his relatives who staged a flash protest by placing the body outside the Devaraja police station.
The police said they would go for a DNA test to ascertain the baby’s parents. The hospital’s medical superintendent Dr K Radhamani confirmed to Deccan Herald that DNA test was necessary and that an in-house enquiry would be probe into the same.
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