PIMS: Premature baby’s body found in washroom

ISLAMABAD:

The body of a premature baby girl was found on Monday morning in a women’s washroom outside the main emergency department at Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS) Monday morning.

PIMS spokesperson Dr Ayesha Ishani told The Express Tribune that the body was found in the washroom at around 6:30 am. “One of the patients discovered the body in a toilet,” she said.

The Initial investigation suggested that the baby girl had been dumped by ‘unidentified outsiders’ a few hours after birth as the umbilical cord and placenta were still attached to the body, she said.

“It is clear that the baby was not born in the hospital and was brought from outside,” said Ishani.

She said that CCTV camera footage from the emergency ward will be used to identify the suspects and that the case has been handed over to the police for investigation.

“It is too early to say whether it was a stillbirth, if the baby was killed, or if she died after being dumped,” said Ishani, adding that the postmortem will determine the cause of death. She added that the pregnancy was around 32 weeks along when the child was born.

Meanwhile, a senior doctor at the emergency department said on the condition of anonymity that the incident exposed the security claims of the PIMS administration, which was supposed to be beefed up after a newborn was abducted a few months back and chief cardiologist Dr Shahid Nawaz Malik was killed a few weeks back.

“It is shocking that an outsider easily entered the Pims emergency department while carrying a body,” he said.

The doctor said it was surprising that sanitary staff or emergency department staff did not notice the suspicious activity.

DSP Margalla Police Station Ashraf Shah said that they were waiting for the Pims administration to hand over the CCTV footage. Meanwhile, Margalla Police Station Sub Inspector Abdul Jabbar said it seemed to be a miscarriage. He said a pregnant woman probably went to use the toilet and miscarried there.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 17^th, 2015.