A nurse in Lalbag Hospital will be suspended for using acid for antiseptic on a pregnant woman in a hospital in Murshidabad. The incident which occurred on Tuesday, ensured the woman Shikha Bibi, who was going into labour, lost her baby boy, and suffered great injuries on her thighs. Earlier, Shikha Bibi and her husband - a daily wage labourer, said that doctors had told them that the baby was stillborn. They had alleged a cover-up by the hospital.
A senior health official in the district had admitted that an acidic solution was administered to Shikha Bibi. "The sweepers may have made a mistake and exchanged the bottles. The solution is of the same colour," said BP Shau, Deputy Chief Municipal Health Officer, Murshidabad.
In Kolkata, chief minister Mamata Banerjee, also the state's Health Minister, has blamed the Left government which was in power till she took over for Bengal's poorly-equipped government hospitals. "40,000 children used to die during the Left rule. They have stolen all the money. There are no doctors, no nurses, no pathologist, no CT Scan, no MRI. I have given Rs. 1200 crore to slowly upgrade the rural health infrastructure," Ms Banerjee said on Wednesday evening.