Quadruplets Die Within Hours Of Birth In Jammu And Kashmir

Soon after miraculously delivering quadruplets, a woman lost all four of her babies in Jammu and Kashmir today. Kalida Begum, who lives near Jammu and Kashmir's Line of Control, gave birth to four babies at 2.00 am on Monday. However, all four of the babies died within 12 hours.

The woman gave birth to three boys and one girl through a rare normal delivery in government sub-district hospital in Jammu and Kashmir' Kupwara. The hospital said that quadruplets were premature and were low birth weight babies. According to experts, such babies require immediate special care in the neonatal intensive care unit which is not available at Kupwara sub-district hospital.

Earlier today, three of the four babies died in Kupwara hospital. Soon after that, the surviving baby, a boy, and the mother were shifted to a hospital in Srinagar for special care. Later, the fourth baby also died after being shifted to Srinagar.

The Kupwara sub-district hospital lacks facilities to deal with maternal and neonatal emergency care. Mostly, the patients are referred to Srinagar. There have been several cases of patients dying while travelling long distances due to delay in timely medical care.

The Kupwara sub-district hospital had issued a statement right after the birth of the quadruplets stating that mother and the babies were doing well. "It fortunately was a normal delivery given the rarity of such cases", Dr Mohammad Shafi, medical superintendent of sub-district hospital, Kupwara had said.

Kalida Begum was first admitted at a medical facility at Keran, a village right on the Line of Control on Sunday evening, said some officials. According to locals, a health worker there referred her to government hospital in Kupwara where she delivered the babies.