Woman gave birth to boy, handed stillborn girl: Kin

NOIDA: The family of a 25-year-old woman alleged on Tuesday that the district hospital in Sector 30 handed over a stillborn girl to them despite a nursemaid telling them moments after the delivery that she had given birth to a boy.

The family refused to take the body of the girl and created a ruckus near the labour room, prompting the hospital to call police. According to Dinesh Rai, the husband of Chandni who was admitted to the hospital, his wife was in the ninth month of pregnancy, though the hospital put it at seven and a half months. “My wife had started getting labour pain in the afternoon. I brought her to the district hospital around 5.30pm and admitted her,” said Dinesh, a resident of Khoda colony in Ghaziabad.

Dinesh said a nursemaid, Geeta, had told the family around 6pm that Chandni had delivered a boy but there were some complications. The nursemaid later denied the allegation, claiming she had only said the baby had its head upwards in the womb and did not specify if it was a boy or girl. “Around 6.30pm, the doctor told us a baby girl was born but she was extremely weak. The baby was lying in a corner of the labour room,” he said.

The baby girl allegedly given to the family was taken to the neighbouring super-speciality paediatric hospital and post-graduate teaching institute, where she was declared dead on arrival.

Although the doctor who carried out the delivery, Alokita Sharma, refuted the allegations, saying the woman was only seven and a half months pregnant, Chandni’s vaccination records in possession with TOI suggested otherwise.

According to Chandni’s vaccination records, her possible date of delivery was August 18, which means there were only 18 days for the nine-month gestation period to complete.

Chief medical superintendent (CMS) Ajai Agrawal has directed a DNA test on the family to verify if the stillborn girl was their’s.

Manish Saxena, the SHO of Sector 20 police station, said the authorities would recommend the chief medical officer (CMO) to form a medical board to look into the allegation. “A medical board has to be formed and we will ask the CMO to do the same. Action will be taken based on the board’s report,” he said.

This is the third such allegation against the hospital in three years. On June 20, 2016, a family had alleged they were handed over a single child though the ultrasound report showed the woman was pregnant with twins. On November 24, that year, the family of a 21-year-old woman had complained that her newborn son had gone missing from the hospital post-delivery.