Chanda GMCH saw one infant death every day in 6 mths

Chandrapur: A total of 183 infants died between April and September this year at the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit of Government Medical College and Hospital at Chandrapur. In other words, one infant died every day on an average in the above period.
The matter came to fore after corporator Pappu Deshmukh alleged that six infants died on a single day – October 18 – and even listed out the names of the six women who lost their child. He also referred to recent reports about 125 infant deaths at NICU in last four months and charged the hospital’s doctors with negligence.

Though Deshmukh blamed poor administration for the alarming number of deaths, hospital administration denied any negligence and maintained that infant mortality at NICU here was quite less than the national and state average.

Deshmukh also threatened to launch an agitation against the GMCH administration and demanded removal of dean Dr SS Morey and NICU doctors.

NICU in-charge Dr Bhaskar Sonarkar told TOI that most infant deaths at the hospital were due to premature delivery and low birth weight. “The infants with premature birth have under-developed organs and have low chances of survival. Similarly, survival probability in extremely low birth weight cases too is very low,” he said.

A large number of infant deaths were those babies not born at GMCH. “In most cases where infants born in other hospitals and develop complications were brought to GMCH NICU for treatment. A majority of these infants were brought in a critical condition and at times succumb despite best efforts of the doctors, Dr Sonarkar added.

Dr Morey informed that hundreds of patients are referred to Chandrapur GMCH from neighbouring Gadchiroli, bordering area of Yavatmal and Adilabad district in Telangana. Chandrapur GMCH has a NICU and team of qualified doctors to take care of such patients. “Infant deaths at NICU here is quite low. Our average infant death rate (against admission) is 12.4%, whereas national average of infant mortality is 21% and state average is 19%,” he explained.

On six deaths in a single day, Dr Morey explained that two infants had low weight at birth, two others had severe birth asphyxia and hence they failed to survive. In the remaining two cases one was admitted in critical condition and while other was suffering from septicemia and meningitis, he informed.