'Dead' newborn found alive, again

A newborn girl was found to be alive after she had been declared dead by doctors at a private hospital in Chittagong city early yesterday.

The doctors had even issued a death certificate.

The incident happened barely two weeks after another newborn girl, who was declared dead at a Faridpur hospital, cried out moments before her burial at a graveyard there.

The baby from Chittagong was undergoing treatment at another private hospital in the port city. Her condition is critical.

Her father is a doctor and her mother a dentist. She is the couple's first child.

Ridwana Kawsar, assistant dental surgeon at Alikadam Upazila Health Complex in Bandarban, gave birth to a premature baby at Centre for Specialised Care and Research (CSCR) around 1:00am yesterday.

Her husband, Nurul Azam, a medical officer at Cox's Bazar Sadar Hospital said, “After the baby was born, my wife heard a gynaecology consultant say that the baby's breathing was okay. The consultant asked on-duty doctors to take the baby to the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU).”

“But two hours later, they packed the baby in a box and sent it to my wife's cabin along with a death certificate,” he alleged.

“As my wife herself is a doctor, she opened the box to verify, and was surprised to see that the baby was alive. But her body was cold.”

“She immediately informed the doctors about it and asked them to take the baby to the NICU, but they refused saying she was wrong and her baby was dead,” Nurul, who was at work at the time, said.

“My wife noticed that the baby was moving, but the on-duty doctors said she was not moving,” he said. “My wife asked them to examine the baby but they refused.”

“Then my wife took the baby to another private hospital and put her in an incubator. It [the baby's temperature] became a bit normal. As there was no NICU there, the baby was taken to Max Hospital. She is now undergoing treatment at the NICU, but her condition is critical,” Nurul said.

Taimul Islam, front desk executive at Max Hospital, said Ridwana's baby was admitted to the NICU around 6:00am yesterday.

Nurul alleged that the baby was kept without any care for two hours after her birth at CSCR.

 “There was sheer negligence on the part of the on-duty doctors at CSCR's NICU, which left her in critical condition. They packed an alive baby in a box, terming it dead,” Nurul alleged.

Contacted, Tanvir Zafar, resident medical officer of CSCR, said the baby weighed only 500 grammes. “The baby was in the womb for 25 weeks and the viable age of a baby is 28 weeks,” he said.

Asked why the baby was declared dead despite it being alive, Tanvir said the hospital management committee formed a probe body to investigate the matter. The committee was asked to submit its report within 48 hours.

Refuting Tanvir's claim, Nurul said his baby was in the womb for 27 weeks.

Calling it a sheer negligence and violation of medical ethics, Mahfuzur Rahman, a renowned pathologist, told The Daily Star that mostly intern doctors or junior doctors are on duty in the night shift at most private hospitals.

Due to their inexperience, junior doctors cannot make proper decisions most of the time, especially when the patient's condition is critical, he said.

“To avoid recurrence of such incidents, private hospitals should engage senior doctors in rotation round the clock,” Mahfuzur said.