Newborn girl dies in Assam’s largest govt hospital after falling off phototherapy bed

On Monday evening, Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma ordered the formation of a three-member committee to conduct an enquiry into the incident. The committee comprises 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.

The baby was born to a family from Guwahati around noon on August 15 and was admitted to the NICU because she had an infection.

“Yesterday (Sunday), during afternoon rounds, the doctor found that she had contracted jaundice and needed phototherapy. Unfortunately, at around 5:22 am, during feeding time, when some of the mothers went there to feed their babies, they saw that two babies had fallen from the phototherapy machine. One baby had fallen on the floor and the other was hanging from it. On being informed, doctors and nurses rushed and the baby on the floor was picked up, and was fine. But the baby who was hanging could not be resuscitated,” said Dr Baishya, saying that the nurse on duty was in another room preparing milk for admitted babies whose mothers were unable to feed them.

“There are doctors, nurses, cleaners on duty, and everyone will be part of the enquiry. I have asked the head of department to check CCTV footage and give me a report about what time the nurse went out and what time the mothers came in,” he said.

The baby’s father, Utpal Bordoloi, said that he found out about what happened when he went to the hospital to see his daughter on Monday morning.

“I was there in the hospital till 10 pm the previous night to watch over my baby. I had come to see her again this morning and found that there was some commotion outside the hospital… I did not think that it was about my baby,” he said.

He accused the hospital of negligence and complained about three babies being put in the same phototherapy bed.

“They keep three little babies in one bed. There is no safety. My baby has died because of negligence by doctors and staff. It is complete negligence,” he said.

Dr Baishya said that the hospital regularly places two-three babies in one unit, adding that as a referral hospital, it admits more babies than its capacity every month.

“Our admission capacity at a time is 70 or 80. But in a month, we give admission to over 1,000 babies. We cannot refuse the referrals. We have to keep more than one baby in a unit or else I will have to deny someone else admission,” he said.