A newborn girl died and two other babies sustained injuries on Monday after allegedly falling off their bed at the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) of the government-run Guwahati Medical College Hospital (GMCH).
Officials called the incident an “accident”, and ordered an in-house inquiry including checking CCTV cameras of the unit and failure of attendant nurses and doctors to take proper care of the newborns.
“A baby girl was born to my wife on August 15 through cesarean section. On Sunday evening, I was told by GMCH that the baby would have to be kept in the NICU due to some complications,” the father of the deceased infant said.
“When I came to the hospital this morning, I came to know that some babies had fallen from the NICU bed and my child was hanging by an attached wire. The incident came to light when some parents went there at 5:30am to feed the newborns. Since my child was hanging by the wire there was no oxygen supply to her heart and she had turned black,” he added.
Speaking to media persons, GMCH principal Dr Achyut Baishya termed the incident as an unfortunate incident and said that such a thing has never happened in the hospital’s history.
{{/usCountry}}Speaking to media persons, GMCH principal Dr Achyut Baishya termed the incident as an unfortunate incident and said that such a thing has never happened in the hospital’s history.
{{/usCountry}}“There were three newborns kept in one bed at NICU. This morning, it was found that one baby was hanging by a wire of the bed while two others sustained injuries after falling on the concrete floor,” he said.
Dr Baishya said the attendant nurses were at an adjoining room preparing milk feed for the newborns when a parent saw the babies.
“I have asked the head of the department of the pediatric unit to inquire into the incident, check the CCTV cameras to ascertain how the incident happened,” he said.