West Bengal's Murshidabad Medical College tragic befell, when nine newborns died within a span of twenty four hours. Out of the 10 babies, three were born in the hospital and seven were brought there from other medical facilities for treatment, hospital officials informed said. The senior official also informed that of the nine newborns who died, two were suffering from congenital heart diseases, one had congenital neurological problem, two were suffering from septicemia, three had low birth weight and one had congenital problem along with low birth weight.
One child was 26 months' old and was suffering from congenital ailments, said an official of the government hospital, located around 200km from Kolkata. The tragic incident has sparked public outrage. According to authorities, the babies were shifted from the SNCU (Special Newborn Care Unit) at Jangipur Sub-Divisional Hospital to Murshidabad Medical College due to lack of proper facilities.
The sudden influx of patients put immense strain on the already overloaded medical college, contributing to the unfortunate deaths, they said. "Nine children have died in the last 24 hours. We have formed an inquiry committee.
Based on a preliminary enquiry, most of the children were found to be malnutritioned and weighed 300-500 grams in weight. One among them had a severe heart problem from birth. We do not have such facility to treat him here and we did not have the time to take him to the facility to get him treated," said Professor Amit Dan, Principal of the Murshidabad Medical College Hospital.
"Another problem is that in PWD work is going on at Jangipur hospital and all patients there are being referred to us. We have 129 beds and 300 patients. We are trying our best but we
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