Probe ordered after infant shifted by Bihar govt doctor to his nursing home dies

The Bihar health department has ordered an inquiry into the death of an infant four days after the baby was shifted from a government hospital to a private nursing home, allegedly linked to the hospital’s paediatrician, people familiar with the matter said on Wednesday.

The infant’s family alleged that the infant was born at Biharsharif Sadar hospital in Nalanda district and that they were coerced by hospital staffers to shift the baby from the special newborn care unit (SNCU) to the nursing home on January 17.

The infant died four days later, minutes after being discharged from the nursing home with Ambu bag support, a hand-held manual resuscitator, on January 21. “My grandson died moments after removal of the ventilation support,” said Rajesh Paswan, a motor vehicle driver at Rahui block in Nalanda district. .

Pratyaya Amrit, Bihar’s additional chief secretary, health, ordered an inquiry and asked Nalanda district magistrate Shashank Shubhankar, who visited the district hospital on Wednesday, to personally oversee the probe.

Dr Ashok Kumar, deputy superintendent of the Biharsharif district hospital, however, claimed that the relatives of the patient, Divya Kumari, 21, who underwent caesarean or C-section procedure, wanted to take the child to a private clinic for treatment and had made a written request to the hospital authorities.

“We normally refer our patients to the Bhagwan Mahavir Institute of Medical Sciences, a government medical college in Nalanda. However, we cannot stop anyone from taking their patient anywhere else for treatment. In the instant case, the relatives gave us a signed statement that they wanted to take the newborn from our hospital to a private centre,” said Dr Kumar.

Rajesh Paswan, Kumari’s father, however, said he was forced to sign the document stating that he volunteered to shift his grandson from the government hospital to a private clinic.

“Within 5-10 minutes of my grandson’s admission to the SNCU at the district hospital, three ASHAs at the Biharsharif sadar hospital took my grandson to a private clinic of the same doctor who was also managing the SNCU at the government hospital. I paid around ₹55,000 to the doctor, in addition to ₹10,000 on investigations, for the treatment of my grandson, who did not survive,” said Paswan.

A senior officer of the health department said, “We will issue a showcause notice to the doctor and proceed against all those involved in the tragic episode post completion of our preliminary inquiry. We will not spare the guilty.”