The family blames it on unqualified nurses who took care of the baby at the hospital.
The Devendrans, a young couple in Coimbatore were delighted when their son was born on the March 5. But their joy turned to sorrow in just four days after the baby lost his eyesight allegedly due to medical negligence by a private hospital in the city where the mother gave birth.
The father, a 30-year-old Sales Executive in a private bank says that though the baby was healthy, the hospital did not allow the mother to feed him for three days citing their policy; the baby was placed in an incubator and put on IV; the parents were allowed to see him only through the glass door of the Neo-Natal Intensive Care Unit.
"On the third day we noticed his eyes were swollen and it was then we literally fought with the hospital management and moved him to another eye hospital after paying sixty thousand rupees. Following a series of tests and treatment eye doctors have said he will not regain his vision," Mr Devendran told NDTV.
The family blames it on unqualified nurses who took care of the baby at the hospital. "Ophthalmologists clearly tell us that the IV was not fixed properly on the baby's hand, it got infected and the bacterial infection spread to the blood affecting the eyesight. The pediatrician did not visit, the doctor who runs the hospital did not come, we had to finally call the doctor who performed the C section to get the child to feed," says the mother, Sowmya Devendran.
The police took three months to register a case of medical negligence. The father had to approach the Madras High Court. An officer who did not want to be named told NDTV, "We have filed an FIR against the Iswarya Women's Hospital and Fertility Centre and three doctors including Dr Chandralekha who runs the hospital following instruction by the City Police Commissioner. We have not made any arrests. We are first thoroughly investigating and collecting evidences."
When NDTV contacted the private hospital no one was reachable.
The couple says, "We have spent all we had so far. We want medical experts to examine our baby and help him regain vision."