Toddler dies in Sahebgunj after routine immunisation, parents lodge FIR
DHANBAD: The health department has started investigation into the recent death of a 15-month-old boy allegedly within 12 hours of routine immunisation at Barharwa community health centre (CHC) in Sahebgunj district.
As per available information, Amar Kumar was administered routine vaccination for Diphtheria Pertussis Tetanus(DPT) on Thursday and died on Friday morning. Following the incident, his father Ratan Ravi Das lodged an FIR at Barharwa police station against an auxiliary nurse midwife (ANM) Malti Murmu and medical officer Dr Sarita of the aforementioned CHC for allegedly using wrong vaccine.
Sahebgunj civil Surgeon (CS) Dr DK Singh on Saturday said district reproductive child health care (RCH) officer Dr Anil Marandi was probing the incident and would submit a report to the health department in 12 hours.
Even though the postmortem report would clear the reason behind the child’s death, prima facie, it seems he died due to other diseases, the CS said.
“Altogether 10 kids (of age group 16 to 24 months) were administered DPT routine vaccine from a single vile January 21 at the aforementioned CHC. No other complaint of any type of complication has been received so far. Had the vaccine been wrong, it would have impacted the other nine children too,” said Dr DK Singh.
On the other hand, the father of the deceased, in his complaint to the police, has charged that ANM Malti Murmu administered his son the vaccine at the said health centre Thursday afternoon, after which his condition started deteriorating at night. However, a medicine, prescribed by the ANM, did not improve Amar’s condition. In the morning, he brought his son to the hospital, where doctors were absent. Later on, Dr Sarita arrived declared his son dead, Das alleged in his complaint.
Meanwhile, Barharwa police station inspector Kuldip Kumar said on the basis of the complaint, the child’s body has been sent for autopsy. Further action would be initiated after getting the report, he said.