Solomon’s solution: Babies swapped at Sobhraj maternity home

Mum returns with girl, saying she produced a boy.


Tufail Ahmed August 08, 2011
Solomon’s solution: Babies swapped at Sobhraj maternity home

KARACHI: Two newborn babies were allegedly swapped shortly after they were born in the government-run Sobhraj Maternity Hospital on Saturday.

According to reports, two women, Kulsoom and Hamida, separately gave birth to two babies in normal delivery cases early Saturday.

One woman gave birth to a baby boy and the other to a girl but the confrontation began when both women claimed the baby boy.

Kulsoom said that she was discharged on Saturday night and went home with a baby. She returned to the hospital, on Sunday, claiming, however, that she had given birth to a boy but the staff had given her a girl.

Medical Superintendent Dr Anwar Ali Khoja reached the hospital and tried to find out about Hamida but she had left with the baby boy without informing anyone. Her address turned out to be incorrect as well in the records she had supplied.

The hospital’s management has suspended four staff members and has formed a five-member team, including Dr Anjum Afshan, Dr Fauzia Rehman, Dr Saleem and Azra Perveen, to investigate the matter and Professor Shabnam Shamim would head the inquiry team.

Rubina Yousuf, Shamim, Naheed Tahir and Naeem were suspended in the initial investigation. Kulsoom and her husband Ziaur Rehman have registered a case at the Arambagh police station.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 8th, 2011.

COMMENTS (5)

abdussamad | 13 years ago | Reply

LOL trust the Tribune's readers to turn this into a gender issue. How dare the baby snatcher choose the boy over the girl!!

Abid Khan | 13 years ago | Reply

Immediate police help should be sought in locating the babies followed by DNA tests of the infants and both the mothers would determine the parentage.

The underlying reason in such cases can be frailty of human nature or crime due to gender bias prevalent in the society. Better security routines ought to be adopted at such clinics. Right from the moment of birth, proper/precise information registering of the infant, gender description a digital photograph and a tagging on the baby's wrist would go a long way to avert possible mistakes and to a certain degree crime too can be avoided.

Keeping my fingers crossed.

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