5 more crib deaths in Burdwan hospital

Five more babies have died at Burdwan Medical College and Hospital, days after 13 crib deaths were reported from the premier hospital in the West Bengal district, but authorities maintained there was nothing alarming in the death figures.

Three babies died in the paediatric ward and two in the nursery where new borns are kept since Saturday, due to low weight, a senior hospital official said.

"I have information that five crib deaths have taken place in the past 24 hours, one of them a stillborn baby," Principal Dr Sarit Choudhury, who is on leave, said when contacted.

"However, let me assert such deaths are quite normal for babies having low birth weight. But the hospital always tries to avert a single such incident. We are monitoring the situation," Choudhury added.

Four days back 12 babies had died at the hospital and one on Thursday and the hospital authorities had claimed the one-to-three days old babies were underweight and suffering from jaundice, encephalitis and septicemia.