Inquiry committee into deaths of four newborns at Nainital hospital

Nainital district magistrate Vinod Kumar Suman on Monday constituted an inquiry committee into the deaths of four newborns at Dr Susheela Tiwari government medical college and hospital in Kaladungi within 24 hours on August 15 due to alleged negligence.

Taking cognisance of the incident following a complaint by Mahesh Kandpal , one of the parents, Suman said a three-member inquiry committee, comprising city magistrate, Haldwani, and two doctors, will investigate the deaths of four infants at the hospital and submit their report within 15 days.

Dr Arun Joshi, medical superintendent Dr Susheela Tiwari government medical college and hospital, said they have also instituted a departmental inquiry into the deaths of the four newborns within 24 hours on August 15.

“According to the preliminary information, I have received, one case was that of a premature delivery. Two were intra-uterine deaths and the four was reportedly due to birth asphyxiation. But things will be clear after we investigate the matter and go through the documents and time logs,” he said.

Dr Joshi said being a tertiary care hospital, the hospital receives referred cases from across the six districts of the Kumaon region. “We get lots of patients here, especially which are complicated or more severe. In such cases, there is some neo-natal mortality,” he said.

Complainant Kandpal, who works at a bank in Haldwani, said he took his wife to the hospital around 12 o’clock on August 15.

“Hospital authorities said it was a normal delivery case. But nobody attended my wife from 12 o’clock to 2.30 am in the night. There was a thin presence in the hospital. When I finally went into the staffroom and asked the doctor, she went into the ward and came out after 10 minutes, telling me that the newborn couldn’t be saved,” he said.

Kandpal said when he asked for the body of his newborn, they refused to hand over the body. “I created a ruckus and called police. Finally, around 4.30 in the morning after police arrived, the body was handed over to me. I later complained about the matter to the Kumaon commissioner and Nainital DM,” he said.

First Published: Aug 21, 2018 02:11 IST