Newborn dies in UP as father runs from one hospital to another

A newborn child died allegedly due to lack of medical support in Uttar Pradesh's Gautam Buddh Nagar as his father kept running between hospitals in Greater Noida and Noida, prompting the district administration to launch a probe on Tuesday. Rekha and Rajkumar, from Sector-36 in Greater Noida, are the parents of the baby who was born at a private hospital Monday night.

"The woman was admitted to Shri Krishna Lifeline Hospital in Greater Noida on Monday. She delivered a baby around 9.30 pm. The baby's condition was not fine and was, hence, taken to another facility, Green City Hospital, at 10 pm," Chief Medical Officer Deepak Ohri said.

"The baby was kept at the Green City hospital for two hours on ventilator support and thereafter referred elsewhere," he said. The CMO said the Shri Krishna Lifeline Hospital "made error" on three counts. "The hospital did not provide an ambulance for the ventilated patient. There was no healthcare worker to attend to the ventilated patient. It did not give a referral slip for the patient," the senior doctor said in a statement. He said the baby's father had to then arrange for an ambulance using the 108 service.

"Due to the lack of a proper referral slip, the newborn was first taken to a community health care centre in Dadri and since no child specialist was available there, the baby was then taken to the Child PGI in Sector 30, Noida," he said. "The baby died before he could reach the Child PGI," the CMO said. A notice has also been issued to the Green City hospital and strong action is being taken, Ohri said. The health department has also constituted a team of doctors including Sanjeev Malik and Sunil Dohare to investigate the matter and present a report so that action could be taken against the guilty, according to the statement.