Uttar Pradesh:

A disturbing visual of dogs eating a newborn’s head has stirred controversy in Uttar Pradesh’s Lalitpur. Dogs were seen tearing apart the newborn baby at the Lalitpur Medical College on Tuesday. By the time people could chase away the dogs, they had already eaten the child’s head. The hospital administration has shrugged off the responsibility and alleged family for the negligence.

The baby was born at the District Women’s Hospital at Lalitpur Medical College on Sunday (February 9). The child was born underweight and unwell due to which he was admitted to the Special Newborn Care Unit (SNCU).

“The child was born with congenital defects,” said Dr Meenakshi Singh, Chief Medical Officer. “The child’s head wasn’t fully developed. He didn’t have a spine either and weighed 1.3kg. He was alive and had a heart rate of 80 beats per minute (bpm) when we moved him to SNCU. We were not sure if the child would survive,” she added.

Unfortunately, the child died by the evening. The body was handed over to the family.

“The child’s aunt took the body. We have the receiving with a thumb impression of the aunt,” said Dr Singh.

On Tuesday afternoon, the hospital administration got news of the dog attack. Upon investigation, a child’s headless body was found on the ground. The hospital administration has alleged that the family abandoned the dead body.

“We believe the family threw the child’s body in a plastic bag. The child had the hospital tag attached which is how we could identify,” said Dr Singh.

The body was removed hours before the police were informed.

Lalitpur Medical College Principal D Nath has formed a committee of four doctors and issued an order to send the complete investigation report related to the newborn within 24 hours.

This is not the first time the hospital has come under scrutiny. Reports of negligence were reported in the past as well. There have been complaints of the hospital chasing away pregnant women and misbehaving with them.

Lucknow:

Doctors at a community health centre in Uttar Pradesh’s Kanpur Dehat provided treatment to victims of a road accident under the flashlight of their mobile phones during a power cut on Thursday, despite the availability of two large generators at the facility.

Viral videos from Sikandra Community Health Centre show the doctors attending to patients as the medical staff hold mobile phones to provide light, after the power went off.

Sources said the facility had two functional generators but the systems were not put to use, leading the doctors to continue treating people under inadequate lighting conditions.

The patients were victims of a horrific road accident in Sikandra, which killed two labourers and left 13 people injured, the sources added.

Kanpur Dehat Chief Medical Officer Arun Kumar Singh said a probe has been launched into why the generators and inverter systems were not put to use.

“The community health centre has two generators and an inverter system in the emergency, labour and OPD (out patient department) rooms. I spoke to a doctor there. He claimed the inverter had stopped working for a brief period and was later fixed… There are all (power back up) facilities there…,” he said.

Mr Singh also said the power lines in Sikandra are undergoing repair work, due to which the electricity supply is likely to be disrupted every few hours.

(With inputs from Arun Agarwal)

Hamirpur:

A needle was found embedded in a girl’s arm after she was administered a tetanus injection at the district hospital here, prompting the health department to launch a probe after protests by her family members, officials said on Monday.

Dr RS Prajapati, the acting chief medical superintendent (CMS) of the hospital, said the incident occurred at around 8 pm on Saturday.

Ruby, a resident of Khalepura locality in Hamirpur, took her daughter Mahak (18) to the emergency ward of the hospital for a tetanus injection after she suffered a cut with a sickle.

After receiving the jab, the girl returned home with her mother, Prajapati said.

“About an hour later, Ruby along with her family members returned to the hospital and accused the staff of leaving the needle embedded in Mahak’s arm. As the situation escalated, we called the police to maintain order. The matter was resolved after police intervention,” Prajapati said.

Mahak’s father Mausam Khan said, “After returning home, my daughter complained of pain at the injection spot. Upon checking, we found the needle embedded in her arm. We removed the needle and went back to the hospital to lodge a complaint, but the hospital staff called the police.”

Chief Medical Officer (CMO) Dr Geetam Singh told mediapersons, “I was not aware of the incident. Upon learning about it from you, I have verbally instructed the additional chief medical officer to conduct an investigation. Further action will be taken based on the probe report.”

Sadar Kotwali SHO Devendra Kumar Mishra said the hospital staff informed the police about people creating a ruckus inside the hospital on Saturday evening.

“We intervened and resolved the matter. No formal complaint was filed by either party,” Mishra said.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)