Monster parents flee while 3-day-old son undergoes surgery

Mumbai: Parents of a three-day-old baby boy suffering from a congenital defect abandoned their child in the civic-run Sion hospital on Wednesday morning. The child was suffering from a defect known as imperforate anus, which occurs in one out of 5,000 infants.

Doctors at the hospital said that the newborn boy, Roshan Kumar Mohato, was admitted in the paediatric ward of the hospital on Tuesday evening by his parents Pramod and Bharati Mahato, who hail from the Mangaon taluka in Raigad district. The infant then underwent surgery for the defect. "On Tuesday night, the infant underwent a colostomy, a surgical procedure in which an opening is formed at the end of the large intestine or colon through an incision. After this he was shifted to the ICU of the paediatric ward," said Dr Avinash Supe, dean of Sion hospital.

While Roshan was recuperating in the ICU, his parents slipped out of the hospital, and didn't return. They were last seen outside the paediatric surgery ward, said a doctor. Roshan will be recuperating in the ICU of the paediatric ward for two more weeks until he fully recovers from the surgery. "His condition is stable, and he weighs 1.8 kg. The hospital staff are taking care of him, and the child is guarded at all times," said Dr Supe.

Even though the hospital authorities were informed about the incident on Wednesday, a complaint is yet to be filed at Sion police station. A sub-inspector from the station said that no such case has been filed with them yet.  Dr Supe revealed that the hospital's CCTV cameras hadn't captured any footage of the parents fleeing the hospital premises. "We don't have CCTV cameras in every ward of the hospital; there are no cameras near that ward," he said.

Beyond reach
MiD DAY managed to get hold of the mobile number registered with the hospital by the parents, but it turned out to be a fake one. The mobile number 7709XXXX62 belonged to a Suraj Mahji (34), a labourer in Jalgaon district. He had no idea who Pramod Mahato was, or where Sion hospital is. The on-duty resident doctor present in the paediatric ward of the hospital added that Roshan's parents were a young couple in their early 20s.

"The father was clean shaven, of average build and had informed us that he was studying for his BA exams. The mother was dressed in a sari and was also of average build. They seemed to belong to the lower income group," said the doctor. They spoke fluent Hindi. The infant was in a poor condition when he was admitted to the hospital.

Speaking to MiD DAY, Dr Paras Kothari, head of the paediatric surgery department in Sion hospital, said, "Roshan was suffering from an anorectal malformation, which means he did not have an opening or an anus to pass stools. We were so shocked to learn that a couple would abandon a perfectly healthy baby boy like this."

"They vanished right after the operation on Tuesday evening, which lasted for about half an hour. He will now be able to pass stools normally and a major surgery will be performed on him four months later to close the colostomy," added Dr Kothari. He further explained that arrangements would be made to keep Roshan under his care for more than 89 days, for the benefit of the child.