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There were reportedly 35 babies in the NICU room in which the incident had taken place. DCP Deka said that whether the room was adequately staffed is a question of “internal administration”. (Credit: Wikimedia Commons)
The nurse who was on duty when a newborn baby fell from a phototherapy bed and died in the Gauhati Medical College and Hospital’s Neonatal ICU (NICU) earlier this week has been arrested for culpable homicide.
The incident, inside Assam’s largest state government-run hospital, took place early on August 18. GMCH Principal and Chief Superintendent, Dr Achyut Chandra Baishya, had on Monday said that the nurse on duty was in another room preparing milk for admitted babies when the infant, along with another baby who survived, fell from a phototherapy bed in which they were both receiving treatment for jaundice.
DCP, Guwahati East, said that the nurse on duty has been arrested.
“She was responsible for the room where the babies were kept and where the incident took place. She had left the room at the time, leaving the babies unattended, because of which the incident took place. We are continuing our interrogation and investigation,” he told The Indian Express.
He said that she has been booked under section 105 of the BNS, which pertains to culpable homicide not amounting to murder.
There were reportedly 35 babies in the NICU room in which the incident had taken place. DCP Deka said that whether the room was adequately staffed is a question of “internal administration”.
Dr Baishya declined to comment, saying that a high-level probe into the incident is currently underway. Following the incident, the Chief Minister had constituted a three-member committee comprising Additional Chief Secretary Sweety Changsan, Director of Medical Education Dr Anup Barman and AIIMS Guwahati Head of the Department of Paediatrics Dr Jaya Shankar Kaushik to conduct an inquiry into the incident.
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The baby had been born on August 15 and was undergoing treatment for jaundice in the NICU. She had been strangulated by wires attached to the phototherapy bed when she fell from it. The child’s father had blamed the hospital for the death.
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