Family Claims Doctors' Negligence Cost Infant's Death, Hospital Denies Charges
Pics: Spoorthi Ullal
Daijiworld Media Network – Mangalore (PS)
Mangalore, Jun 17: Chaos prevailed at the Advanced Paediatric Care unit of Wenlock hospital after a mother who lost her baby alleged that doctors and the hospital staff were responsible for her daughter's death.
Sumitra and Yuvraj had initially admitted their daughter Moksha to a hospital in Kalladka in Bantwal after she started vomiting severely on June 11. Doctors there referred her to the Advanced Pediatric Care unit of Wenlock hospital in Mangalore. On June 12 the doctors here found defects in the lungs of the baby and put her on ventilators.
As per hospital in-charge Dr Shantaram Baliga, the baby was brought to the hospital in a very critical condition. He said that there was no negligence on the part of the doctors or the hospital staff. The baby was also diagnosed with epilepsy, he added.
The hospital has resident doctors round the clock. He ruled out allegations that PG students, and not experienced doctors, handled critical cases.
Regional medical director Saroja said that after the ICU unit opened at the hospital, death rate had increased as patients were being brought in critical condition. In such cases, the patients are usually beyond treatment. In just two days, three infants died in the ICU unit, as they were already in critical stages while being admitted, she said.
Earlier, Keshava, uncle of the deceased infant alleged that there were no doctors to handle Moksha's case, and when they requested the duty doctors to call their seniors, it was the PG students who came to treat her. The hospital staff too did not care to answer their queries, he said.