Newborn’s death sparks protest at Tirupur GH

Tirupur: A couple along with their relatives staged a protest at the Tirupur government hospital in the city on Thursday alleging that their newborn died due to negligence of doctors and paramedical staff.
“I have a five-year-old son and my wife Sugaraniya became pregnant for the second time. As she felt labour pain, she was admitted at the Tirupur GH on Tuesday morning,” S Thangaraj, 29, of Sri Nagar in Angeripalayam, said.

“At first, a duty doctor informed us that it would be normal delivery but an hour later, my permission was sought for performing caesarean. We said fine but in the same evening, baby boy was born in normal delivery,” he said.

“Even without showing the newborn to us, the 26-year-old woman was admitted in neonatal intensive care unit. The doctors informed us that baby was suffering from asphyxiation. During evening hours on Wednesday, the baby was declared dead,” he said.

“While there was no alarming medical history involved throughout the pregnancy, how the baby would have died after being born in the normal delivery. If there was any complication in the delivery, they should have done the caesarean. Negligence and improper care shown by the doctors and paramedical staff costed our baby’s life,” he added.

Around 10 people including the baby’s father sat in front of the main building and protested by refusing to receive the baby’s corpse. A health department official held talks with the protesters.

A senior health official said, “As the baby’s head was ready at brim for coming out, we earlier wanted to perform normal delivery, but the decision changed when it seemed complicated. But again, the situation progressed, so the normal delivery was conducted. However, the baby died unfortunately due to asphyxiation. There was no negligence from our part at all.”