'Wife was not admitted to hospital despite heavy bleeding and severe pain'; family files complaint against hospital in Kayamkulam over death of newborn baby

ALAPPUZHA: A family has lodged a complaint against Medical Trust Hospital in Kayamkulam following the death of a newborn baby. The baby of Ajeesh and Athulya died on Monday afternoon. Police have registered a case based on the complaint filed by the parents. Hospital authorities had earlier advised Athulya to get admitted for delivery on the 24th of this month. However, she was taken to the hospital two days earlier after she developed severe stomach pain. She was reportedly given medicine for the pain and sent back home.

Later that night, Athulya was rushed back to the hospital due to heavy bleeding. According to her husband Ajeesh, the staff on duty initially refused to admit her and asked her to return on the scheduled date. He alleged that she was admitted only after he and a friend insisted. The baby was delivered alive through a surgery around noon on Monday.

However, hospital authorities later informed the family that the baby had a low heartbeat and advised shifting the newborn to Vandanam Medical College. Both the mother and the baby were transferred from Medical Trust Hospital to the medical college, but the baby could not be saved. Ajeesh told the media that the baby’s life might have been saved if proper treatment and medical examinations had been carried out when Athulya first experienced severe pain and heavy bleeding.

The complaint comes just days after another reported newborn death allegedly linked to medical negligence at the District Hospital in Nedumangad, Thiruvananthapuram. In that incident, a baby girl born to Ranjana Krishna from the Manali tribal settlement in Vithura died on February 17 following a Caesarean section. An inquiry committee report later pointed to lapses on the part of the doctor who performed the surgery.