Lapse in security?: Two-month-old baby goes missing from CHK

A veiled woman took the infant from the mother, saying she had to be given an injection.

KARACHI: Only three hours after admission into the hospital, a two-month-old infant was abducted from the Civil Hospital, Karachi on Friday.

The baby, S, was a HIV patient and was admitted to the pediatric ward at the CHK. The father and uncle of the baby had gone out for some work when a veiled woman reportedly took the baby away from her mother. “The veiled woman told my wife that she had to take the baby for an injection,” said Abid Hussain. When he first found out that S had been taken by a woman, he searched the entire hospital but could not find the woman or the baby.

The family, who are not fluent in Urdu, had come to Karachi from Punjab. “She was admitted to the hospital at around 12pm and kidnapped within three hours of her admission,” SHO Aziz Shaikh told The Express Tribune. “The baby’s father is a HIV patient who arrived in the city for his treatment and had to be admitted to the hospital on November 4.”

The hospital administration, however, was not ready to own their failure. “We [doctors] did not hand the baby to the unidentified woman, her mother did,” said CHK Medical Superintendent Dr Saeed Qureshi while talking to The Express Tribune. “The doctors admitted the baby after she was found HIV positive during the family screening.”

In reply to a question, Qureshi claimed that the incident took place during the visiting hours and said that it was not the first incident to have occurred at the hospital. Earlier, a baby was kidnapped from the hospital when the parents handed their baby to an unidentified woman.

“We are trying our level best to find the baby,” said SHO Shaikh. “We are also looking for CCTV footage installed at the main entrance of the hospital. It may prove helpful.” No case was registered till the filing of this report.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 2^nd, 2013.