CUTTACK: A newborn baby boy was found abandoned at the backside of the paediatric department’s OPD of the SCB medical college and hospital late on Wednesday night.
The matter came to light after an on-duty staff Renuka Parida heard the baby crying and informed the hospital authorities. Soon after, the newborn was rescued and admitted to the special newborn care unit (SNCU) of the gynaecology and obstetrics department.
“The newborn weighing around 1.5 kg is premature and believed to have been delivered by his mother in 28 weeks. Since the baby was exposed to the rainy night, his condition was critical at the time of rescue. However, we are now closely monitoring his health condition,” said a senior doctor of the department.
A report in this connection was submitted to the Child Welfare Committee. “Childline officials visited the hospital and took stock of the treatment and condition of the newborn. We have also asked the hospital authorities to closely monitor his health condition,” said CWC chairman Pramod Acharya.
Meanwhile, though police have launched an investigation into the incident, they have not yet found any clue regarding the identity of the baby’s mother. Officer in-charge of SCB police outpost Maneswar Pradhan said, “Though we collected CCTV footages from four nearby places and verified those minutely we couldn’t get any clue. The white bedsheet in which the newborn was wrapped is, however, suspected to belong to a private hospital or nursing home.”