E-Paper
4-yr-old ‘abandoned’ by parents at PGIMS, Rohtak after testing positive for Covid
A couple has allegedly abandoned their four-year-old son, who is undergoing Covid-19 treatment at the Trauma ICU of the Post-Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences (PGIMS), Rohtak since June 10
A couple has allegedly abandoned their four-year-old son, who is undergoing Covid-19 treatment at the Trauma ICU of the Post-Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences (PGIMS), Rohtak since June 10.
PGIMS doctors said the boy was brought to the emergency ward by his parents on June 3 as he was facing acute respiratory illness. The next morning, he was shifted to modular ICU-cum OT complex.
“After the boy tested positive for the virus, he was shifted to the trauma centre on June 10, since then his parents have disappeared and the address provided by them was found to be fake by police and PGIMS authorities,” they said.
PGIMS Covid-19 nodal officer Dr SK Singhal said the child has almost recovered from the virus and is on very low pressure oxygen.
“We are trying to find his parents. The boy is stable and is under doctors’ observation. We have lodged a complaint with the Rohtak police about the incident. Police had visited a village in Sonepat as per the address given by the parents but it was a fake address. The phone number provided is switched off since June 10. We suspect that the parents are migrant workers and have either migrated from here or are waiting to receive their boy after treatment,” Singhal added.
Nurses and female doctors at the trauma centre said the boy was playful after being admitted but started becoming restless.
“Taking care of the boy without his parents was difficult. He was scared of the staff wearing PPE kits. We brought toys to distract him,” a nurse, pleading anonymity, said.
PGIMS medical superintendent Dr Pushpa Dahiya said they are waiting for return of the parents.
“If his parents do not come back, we will hand him over to the Haryana State Commission for Protection of Child Rights (HSCPCR),” she added.
PGIMS police station SHO Shamsher Singh said they had received complaint from PGIMS authorities that a couple had abandoned their child.
“We had asked the Sonepat police to trace the parents, but the address provided at the hospital was fake. We are making efforts to find them,” the SHO added.
