Haryana health minister promises probe into baby death at Gurgaon civil hospital

Even as the hospital is probing the incident, Haryana health minister Anil Vij promised to conduct another thorough investigation into the incident.

Two-days after a three-month-old boy died at the Gurgaon civil hospital, the Haryana health minister Anil Vij on Saturday took cognizance of the incident and said that he will conduct a special investigation into the matter.

The incident on Thursday has raised serious questions on the efficacy of ambulance services in the city. (Parveen Kumar/HT)

The infant, Abel, died on Thursday at the civil hospital as the ambulance supposed to take him to Safdarjung Hospital in New Delhi was out of fuel.

Hospital sources said he was admitted to the civil hospital at 9:30am and immediately referred to Safdarjung Hospital. He died at 11:30am at the civil hospital, waiting for the ambulance.

Even as the hospital is probing the incident, the health minister promised to conduct another thorough investigation into the incident.

“We will conduct an investigation (into the baby death at Gurgaon civil hospital) and strong action will be taken against anyone found guilty. Recently, Suresh Prabhu, railway minister, gave 17 ambulances to the Gurgaon (health administration). We will find out if there was any negligence and if so, why. We are fully equipped to provide advanced medical care to our people,” Vij said.

The minister also said that such incidents will be taken seriously and those guilty of negligence will be dealt with as per law. “I am aware that a three-month-old girl had died at the civil hospital last month. We will conduct an independent inquiry and get to the bottom of these cases,” he said.

Earlier, on March 8, a three-month-old girl, suffering from a heart ailment, died at the civil hospital. The death was blamed on the negligence of the hospital staff.

Her parents alleged that she had died waiting for treatment, as no doctors attended on her in the OPD. Doctors had said that she had a hole in her heart.

The girl, from Nuthupur village, was brought by her parents on March 8 around 11.30am, with acute breathing problems.