Denied Ambulance by Ghaziabad’s MMG Govt Hospital, Newborn Dies

NOIDA:
There was a ruckus at the women’s hospital in MMG Government Hospital on Thursday after a three-day-old infant died for want of an ambulance to take the child to a private hospital. The hospital authorities were quick to blame the child’s mother for the incident while also claiming that the doctors were “not careless”.
Their reason for not providing an ambulance was also very clerical: “Government ambulances are not meant to ferry patients to private hospitals”.
Finally, the father had to rush the gasping infant on his scooter to a private hospital where the child was declared brought dead.
According to Deepak Kumar, his son was born on September 3 and developed breathing issues on Thursday afternoon. He immediately asked the doctors for help and also requested them for an ambulance with life support systems for taking the child to a private hospital.
“The doctors made me sign a paper and then removed his oxygen supply. They told us that the ambulance cannot be provided. Despite our repeated requests, they refused to give us one. My child was gasping for breath and I had to take him on my scooter to a private hospital in Raj Nagar. There, he was declared dead on arrival,” Deepak Kumar, a resident of Sector 23, Raj Nagar, said.
“When we returned and complained to the doctors, the women staff told us that they will get me implicated in a case of molestation. The police also arrived and asked me to get an autopsy of the infant conducted,” he said.
Officials of the women’s hospital said the child developed complications as the mother breastfed him and did not make him burp.
“The child was born healthy. After he was breastfed, he was not made to burp and, hence,developed respiratory problems. In the meantime, some journalists were called by his family. They asked to get the child referred to a private hospital and he was taken away and later brought back dead,” Dr Deepa Tyagi, chief medical superintendent (CMS) of the hospital, said.
“Thereafter, the family created a ruckus and thrashed the women staff. We cannot provide ambulances for taking patients to private hospitals as there are directions in this regard from the state government,” she said.
Following the incident, the CMS forwarded a complaint to Kotwali police against Deepak and several others for damaging government property and also thrashing doctors and hospital staff.
“Government ambulances, equipped with life support systems, were available. But they cannot be used to take patients to private hospitals. We can only ferry patients to other government hospitals,” Dr NK Gupta, chief medical officer, Ghaziabad, said.
“There was no carelessness on the part of doctors. His mother did not follow the steps after breastfeeding the infant,” Dr Gupta justified.
He said such complications probably occur once in a thousand cases.
“Milk enters the lungs if the baby is not burped. In the event of such a complication, we have a special newborn care unit. But the endotracheal tube, which is to be put through trachea and a ventilator support, is not available there,” Dr Gupta said.
The family of the infant said that they will also file a complaint with the police.