The sudden death of a three-month-old infant in less than an hour after discharge from Rajiv Gandhi Women and Children hospital on Sunday sparked off a protest against the doctors and hospital administration on Monday.
Tension prevailed at the native village of the infant at Mannadipet, around 20 km from Puducherry where villagers resorted to a road blockade demanding action against doctors of the hospital. A couple from Mannadipet, Vijayan and Sonia Gandhi, brought their girl child to the hospital for treatment on Sunday.
The infant had symptoms of vomiting and was administered anti-vomiting drugs by a doctor doing his DNB in pediatrics. After keeping the infant under observation for an hour and finding the vital parameters to be normal, the infant was discharged, said Director Health and Family welfare Dr K V Raman.
However, on the way, the child fainted near Villianur and was rushed to a private medical college in the area, where doctors informed them that the child was already dead. Irate over this the relatives of the child and villagers staged a road blockade at Chinnapet demanding action against the doctors who treated the child. Police intervened and pacified them and they called off the agitation. However, they resumed the road blockade today stating that they will not collect the body of the child until action was initiated against the doctors and post-mortem was conducted at the GH. The public gathered in front of the Rajiv Gandhi Women and Children Hospital seeking action against doctors and objected to manning the hospital with DNB doctors on holidays.
A post-mortem of the child by a three-member team was done at JIPMER, which would also be videographed. After this the villagers called off their agitation. Only after the post-mortem report is given and the cause of death is known, the department will respond, said Dr Raman. “We checked the records and the drugs prescribed and treatment administered seems to be fine,” he said.