CHENNAI: Tension prevailed at the Kilpauk Medical College and Hospital after two baby boys in the Neo-Natal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) died on Saturday morning, leading to a protest by their parents and relatives in front of the ward alleging medical negligence.
Speaking to reporters, M Rasathi (22), hailing from Avadi and the mother of Kishore, one of the babies, said he was born in the hospital on December 25 by normal delivery and was discharged after a couple of days. The baby was also administered the BCG vaccine in the hospital itself. But after a day, Kishore developed severe fever with swelling of the stomach and breathlessness. So, the family rushed the baby to the KMCH on January 9 after treatment in a private hospital did not bring the temperature down, and it died on Saturday morning. “The doctors did not give proper treatment. They just kept telling us the baby has got some infection and that recovery was difficult. Our baby died because of the vaccine,” they alleged.
Similarly, another baby born to couple Saranya (23) and Selvakumar (29), belonging to Thirumazhisai, on December 24, at the same hospital was healthy and discharged but was re- admitted to the NICU on January 10 and it also died on Saturday morning.
Radhakrishnan, State Health Secretary, said the two babies had died of severe klebsiella pneumonia, a bacterial infection which affects the lungs. It is an air-borne infection and newborn babies are more vulnerable to it. We don’t know under what condition the babies were kept at home. They might have caught the infection there. It has got nothing to do with the BCG vaccine, he added.
The bodies of the babies were later handed over to the parents.