Probe into neonatal deaths
Primary investigation suggested that the mothers did not have proper medical records, indicating they lacked proper care during pregnancy RAVI KANT, KGMU vice chancellor
LUCKNOW: Death of four neonates has once again brought to fore problems that pregnant women and newborns face in Queen Mary’s Hospital in King George’s Medical University.
The medical university administration has initiated a probe into the four deaths reported in the past 24 hours. A preliminary investigation that senior doctors conducted revealed that the deaths occurred during treatment and so they countered the allegations of the neonates’ kin that incorrect injections or negligence caused the death of the babies.
“Why would anyone give a wrong injection? Still, death cannot be taken lightly. So we have formed a committee for a scientific probe into all the cases. We need to go into exact details of the deaths,” said KGMU vice chancellor Prof Ravi Kant who constituted the probe committee.
The committee comprises Prof UB Mishra, Prof Vinita Das, Prof Rashmi Kumar, Prof Shailly Awasthi, Prof Mala Kumar, Prof Amita Pandey and Dr Nitin Dutt Bhardwaj. The committee will give its report in two or three days. Two deaths took place in the wee hours while two in the evening. The babies of Tarannum and Simple died in the morning, while the babies of Farheena and Sunita died at around 4 pm on Sunday. Family members alleged that medical staff’s negligence resulted in the death as they did not respond to repeated calls of the parents when the condition of the babies deteriorated.
“Primary investigation suggested that the mothers who came here did not have proper medical records, indicating that they lacked proper care during pregnancy. Still, we will conduct a detailed probe to find the exact reason for the deaths and if there is any shortcoming on our side, we will rectify it,” said the vice chancellor. The medical university has not taken action against any of the medical staff as yet but the vice chancellor said if any of the medical staff was found guilty, action would be taken.