13 infant deaths in a week in Chhattisgarh hospital

At least 13 infants, most of them reportedly born premature, died at the state government-run Chhattisgarh Institute of Medical Sciences in Bilaspur district in last week with their families alleging mismanagement and medical negligence.

The doctors at the hospital, however, said that the infants died due to various reasons and most of them were born premature as well as underweight.

"All infants were admitted in extremely critical conditions from nearby villages of Bilaspur at CIMS. Our doctors tried their best to save their life. Most of them were born underweight and premature," CIMS Bilaspur's Deputy Medical Superintendent Lakhan Singh said in Bilaspur on Monday.

Twelve more infants who are in a critical condition are undergoing treatment at the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit of the hospital, he said.

CIMS Medical Superintendent Ramesh Murty denied any negligence on the part of the hospital

or doctors for the deaths.

"The new born babies died due to various reasons," Murty said, ruling out casualties as a result of hospital borne infections or any specific injections or drugs administered.

The condition of the NICU is completely good and it is properly disinfected and sterilised regularly, he said.

However, he also said that the hospital is closely looking into the matter and making inquiries into it. 

Meanwhile, the Chhattisgarh Health Minister Amar Agrawal's media in-charge Aalekh Verma said in a statement that infants died at CIMS during the past week because they were weak as well as prematurely born, and were referred from different places of Bilaspur division.

CIMS has experts to deal with different serious illness, the statement said.

Earlier, family members of a few new born babies, who died at the hospital, staged a protest and accused doctors of negligence, after which Bilaspur Collector Siddharth Komal Pardesi visited the hospital to take stock of the situation.