2 infants from Jharkhand govt aided agency die at Jamshedpur hospital, 4 others critical

Officials said the infants could have been saved had they been shifted to the ICU in time. Hospital is ascertaining details.

Two infants from Jharkhand government aided special adoption agency (SAA) Sahyog Village died in Mahatma Gandhi Memorial Medical College Hospital (MGMMCH) here in Jamshedpur on Wednesday wee hours while four more infants were undergoing treatment in critical condition, officials said on Wednesday.

Earlier, Sahyog Village centre in Khunti had to be closed down following the deaths of two infants due to underweight complications in August 2018.(AFP Photo/File/Representative)

“A one-year-old girl and a two-month-old boy died at MGMMCH between 1 am and 4 am today. The girl was admitted on Monday late evening while the boy, along with four other infants, was admitted on Tuesday. Of the four undergoing treatment, one is one-year-old while three others are under 6-months-old. The girl played with us till Monday evening and later had to be admitted following complaints of loose motion,” Gurvinder Kaur, manager of SAA Sahyog Village in Sonari locality here, said.

She said food poisoning was unlikely to be the cause less as the infants were fed only lactogen and no other food.

“We presently have 18 infants at Sahyog Village in Jamshedpur. Such incidents had never happened earlier here. The deceased girl was from an unwed mother whose delivery was arranged by us while the deceased boy was found abandoned near Baug-E-Jamshed here,” said Gurvinder, adding that she had verbally informed the concerned officials after admitting the girl on Monday late evening.

Sahyog Village is a Delhi-based NGO run by philanthropist Dr Mankeet Singh ‘Pardeshi’ which runs state government aided SAAs – Sahyog Villages – in Jamshedpur, Ranchi, Khunti, Bokaro and Simdega.

Earlier, Sahyog Village centre in Khunti had to be closed down following the deaths of two infants due to underweight complications in August 2018. One of the infants was a six-month-old girl, who was shifted by the Ranchi child welfare committee (CWC) from missionaries of charity (MoC) run shelter home--Shishu Bhawan, Hinoo-- to Sahyog Village following an alleged baby- selling incident in July.

East Singhbhum district child protection officer (DCPO) Dr Chanchal Kumari said the six infants were admitted to MGMMCH after complaints of dysentery.

“Two of them died at wee hours today. I have talked with the MGMMCH superintendent and the process is on to shift four infants – undergoing treatment in critical condition – to the Tata Main Hospital (TMH) for better treatment. I have also directed Sahyog Village manager Gurvinder Kaur and centre doctor to medically check all the other infants in the shelter home,” said Dr Chanchal.

District CWC (child welfare committee) chairperson Pushpa Rani Tirkey and member Lakhi Das, who visited the infants under treatment last night, said the infants could have been saved had they been shifted to the ICU yesterday.

“Dr Murmu in MGMMCH had prescribed that the deceased girl should be immediately shifted to ICU on Tuesday morning. But she was kept in the ward without any light and oxygen before finally being shifted to ICU only late night when we took up the matter of deteriorating condition of the girl with the deputy superintendent Dr NP Chowdhary,” said Tirkey.

Dr Chowdhary said they were enquiring into the matter and will respond only after ascertaining the details.