Eighteen newborn deaths in Indore hospital spark uproar, doctors refute allegations

Within a span of seven to eight days, 18 newborn deaths were reported in Maharaja Tukojirao Holkar (MTH) Hospital in Madhya Pradesh's Indore. A report was being circulated on social media that these deaths happened because the newborns were given spurious milk as feed by the hospital management. Doctors were saying these allegations were baseless. The probe into the incidents has begun.

Indore (Madhya Pradesh): Within a span of seven to eight days, 18 newborn deaths were reported in Maharaja Tukojirao Holkar (MTH) Hospital in Madhya Pradesh's Indore. These deaths have triggered panic among relatives and attendants of the other patients. The kin of the deceased were demanding a high-level inquiry into the incidents. However, the doctors refuted the allegations.

On the other hand, a report was being circulated on social media that these deaths happened because the newborns were given spurious milk as feed by the hospital management. Dr Sunil Arya, a paediatrician of the hospital, while refuting the allegations said only two deaths were reported. "A five-day-old newborn had sepsis and it was not healing up. The infant suffered cardiac arrest due to sepsis and died. Another was a premature baby and was admitted to this hospital from outside. The newborn was recovering, but underweight. The infant was diagnosed with aspiration pneumonia. Such paediatric patient has the tendency of sudden aspiration death syndrome. So, the newborn while aspirating went into stress. We put him on a ventilator to revive, but the newborn died after some time."

When asked about reports making rounds on social media that 18 deaths were reported due to the negligence of the hospital management, Dr Arya said, "These were baseless allegations. Two deaths were reported because the two newborns were in critical condition. Eighteen deaths were reported in the span of seven to eight deaths. These were normal deaths. It was bound to happen because the infants, who were admitted to the hospital were critical."

ACP of Indore VS Sharma said, "We are probing the case. The hospital authority provided us with information that two deaths were reported. One child was suffering from pneumonia and the other was born prematurely and weak." Police sent the bodies to the hospital for post-mortem."