9 Newborns Die At Bengal Hospital In 24 Hours, Probe Ordered

As many as nine newborn babies and a two-year-old died in a West Bengal hospital in 24 hours. The infants died at the Murshidabad Medical College and Hospital and a committee has been formed to investigate the cause of death, an official said on Friday.

The preliminary information suggests that most of these children were malnourished and one of them had a severe congenital heart disease, the official told NDTV.

"We were not able to save some children as most among them were malnourished, had congenital diseases and were born underweight, weighing about 500 gm or 600 gm," Amit Kumar Dah, the Medical Superintendent cum Vice Principal of the Murshidabad Medical College and Hospital, told NDTV.

Treatment in such cases is time-bound and we did not have that time, Mr Dah said, adding that the Jangipur Sub-Divisional Hospital is undergoing renovation and all their cases from there are being referred to the Murshidabad Medical College & Hospital.

The patients were first taken to Jangipur and then came to us, which took more than five hours, he said.

"If you don't treat such patients in the first four to five hours then it gets difficult to save them," he said.

Children weighing 800 gms or 1 kg can still be saved but saving a child weighing 500 gm is a huge challenge, Mr Dah said.

He said that they have just 130 beds for the 300 patients they are treating as they are also admitting patients from other districts.

"We have to admit all patients on humanitarian grounds," he said, adding that they have also saved about 900 children.