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Abduction of infant raises questions about security at Sassoon hospital
PUNE In the wake of the abduction of a baby episode at Sassoon General Hospital on Friday last week, question marks over the security of new-borns inside the woman’s ward
PUNE In the wake of the abduction of a baby episode at Sassoon General Hospital on Friday last week, question marks over the security of new-borns inside the woman’s ward.
Earlier cases on misdemeanours at the hospital include the handing over of the wrong deceased person to relatives.
According to authorities, so far five incidents - four related to handling corpses and one related to decapitation of a corpse - have been reported at the Sassoon Hospital in the recent past.
In 2019, two bodies were misplaced. The confusion came to light when one of the relatives came to claim the corpse and was informed that the corpse had already been cremated.
In another incident in 2008, a corpse in Sassoon mortuary was decapitated by three persons and later dumped in a canal in Hadapsar.
On August 20 last year confusion prevailed a the Noorani graveyard after a family discovered that the body whose last rites they were preparing for was not related to them. The Sassoon hospital authorities had handed the wrong body to the family.
The incident of an infant being stolen from Sassoon General Hospital onFriday last week is the only such incident of infant abduction which has taken place at the government hospital in the past five years, as per hospital records.
Dr Vinayak Kale, dean, Sassoon hospital, said, “We have strong security measures in place to ensure that no untoward incident takes place on our premises.”
Dr Shrihari Halnor, Sassoon’s Resident Medical Officer (RMO) said, “The last incident took place five years ago, since then, tight security is in place. CCTV surveillance and security guards are stationed at all the wards. Even the current incident is related to an OPD patient and not a patient admitted in the woman’s ward. She had come for some test and in the ensuing melee, the incident took place. However, we have further upgraded our vigil aimed at making the campus safe for all.”
The Bund Garden police on Friday arrested Vandana Jethe (24), a Kharadi resident, for allegedly stealing a three-month-old girl from the hospital. According to the FIR , the 22-year-old mother of the infant had come to the hospital for treatment and was at ward number 74, when a woman dressed as a nurse told her that a family member had come to meet her. The accused offered to look after her baby till she returned. The mother handed the baby to the woman and went out of the ward. On her return, she failed to locate the nurse and her baby and then informed the security personnel at the hospital.
The hospital authorities informed the police after which a Bund Garden police team reached the spot and launched a search for the baby. The investigators found clues about the accused woman from CCTV footage, which showed a woman wearing the uniform of a nurse leaving the hospital premises with the baby.
A police probe revealed that the accused could not conceive a baby and resorted to abduction.
Health activist Feroz Mulla, who staged a protest outside Sassoon Hospital said, “Sassoon authorities need a rap from the higher ups as there is callousness which led to the incident. A probe must be ordered and disciplinary action must be taken by the medical board.”
Goof ups at Sassoon hospital
August 2008
A corpse in the Sassoon mortuary was decapitated by three persons and dumped in a canal in Hadapsar.
May 2019
Two corpses are misplaced. Confusion came to light when one of the relatives came to claim a body. The deceased were both senior citizens whose bodies were kept at the Sassoon mortuary for the night. However, by the time the confusion could be cleared, a wrong body was cremated.
August 20, 2020
At Noorani graveyard a family discovered that the body whose last rites they were preparing for was not related to them. The Sassoon hospital authorities had handed the wrong body to the family.
