Newborn declared dead turns up alive

Ayub Teaching Hospital denies incident, launches investigation

ABBOTTABAD: The labour room staff of Ayub Teaching Hospital placed a newborn baby on a stretcher presuming it to be dead who was later found to be alive by his family members.

The baby was later admitted to the nursery of the hospital for intensive care by his father who works at the same health facility.

The hospital administration in a press release informed that a high powered committee has been constituted which will submit a detailed report within a week’s time and it is further stated that complete birth and death records will be available of all babies born in the last one month.



They totally denied such kind of incident and said that international protocol was followed regarding the disposal of hospital waste including stillborn babies.

The father of the baby Sajawal Khan while talking to media said that eight minutes after putting his presumably dead baby on the stretcher, his mother in-law and another relative checked the baby and to their astonishing joy, he was alive.

The seasoned grandmother took charge, got the baby cleaned, wrapped and mother-fed. She got her son-in-law to get the boy admitted in the hospital nursery for urgent care owing to the trauma he had suffered while entering the world.

However, due to throwing the baby on the open stretcher, his arm and knee were injured and need to be operated by a doctor, Sajawal said. He requested officials of health department to take action over the criminal negligence of the labour room staff.



Apparently, the doctor and the paramedical staff failed to follow the delivery room procedures and erred in checking the vital signs of the neonate.

Soon after birth, a nurse checks the child’s heart rate, breathing, muscle tone, reflex response and colour.

Horrifying disclosure

It has been further learnt that mostly still born babies are thrown in open dustbin near the hospital where dogs and cats eat the bodies.

The horrifying disclosure was made by Afghan boys who collect garbage from the hospital waste dump for recycling. However, once again hospital administration has declared the news as baseless.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 8^th, 2017.