India: Newborn baby, declared dead at birth, found alive minutes before cremation in Assam
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On Wednesday, doctors at a private hospital in Assam declared a newborn baby dead. Later, a few minutes before the cremation, the parents found that the child was alive, PTI reported.
Declared dead by the doctors, a newborn baby was found alive minutes before the cremation in Silchar, Assam.
On Wednesday, doctors at a private hospital in Assam declared a newborn baby dead. However, a few minutes before the cremation, the parents found that the child was alive, PTI reported.
When Ratan Das, 29, took his six-month pregnant wife to a private hospital on Tuesday evening, the doctors told them that her pregnancy had some challenges and they could save either the baby or the mother.
Das said, "We allowed them to perform the delivery. They told me my wife had given birth to a stillborn child."
The doctors handed them the body of their child and a death certificate. However, the child cried as Das and his wife reached the Silchar crematorium and opened the packet containing the body for cremation. "We rushed back to the hospital, and the baby is now under treatment," Das added.
After the incident, a group from Silchar's Malinibil area gathered in front of the hospital and staged a protest.
A resident of Silchar, Sujit Das Choudhary, said the hospital authorities treated the newborn baby like garbage by keeping him in a packet for over eight hours without examining if he was alive.
Das's family has lodged a first information report (FIR) against the hospital and the doctor. The Assam police have not given any official statement about the incident.
Similar incidents
However, it is not the first time in India that doctors have goofed up a newborn baby's case and declared it dead. In February 2023, another shocking incident of medical negligence occurred in New Delhi. A newborn baby declared dead by a doctor was found alive after two and a half hours. When the family approached the hospital again to admit the newborn, the doctors denied them treatment.
In Kanpur, a premature newborn girl was declared dead soon after birth. The incident occurred in July 2023. However, as the family was preparing for the last rites of the baby girl, a relative pointed out that the child was breathing.
A similar incident occurred in Jammu and Kashmir's Banihal, where the parents found that their newborn baby, declared dead by the doctors, was alive after they dug her out of the grave.
(With inputs from agencies)
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