The MKCG Medical College Hospital here has once again triggered controversies over an allegation of swapping of a newborn male child with a female one, indicating sheer professional negligence and harum-scarum health service.
According to information, one Sunita Basantia of Sunathara village under Ganjam district’s Purushottampur police circle had given birth to an immature and underweight male child in the Hospital on February 20. The underweight child was soon put into the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) for treatment where his condition also improved gradually. Sunita was discharged from the hospital on February 22. Since then Sunita had been seeing her child through the glass of the ICU room.
Ironically, when Sunita’s husband Sibaram Basantia went to see his child on Saturday found that the child was a female one. Earlier, Asha worker Dhobani Mohapatra had told Sunita that she had mothered a male child. Besides, Sunita’s discharge certificate and concerned Blood Bank report also mention about birth of a male child.
Baffled Sibaram then went to the hospital authorities to report the matter. But he was told that his wife had given birth to a female child. Disturbed Sibaram then submitted the discharge certificate and the Blood Bank report in support of his claim. This time too, the medical authorities did not pay any heed to his claim, resulting a scuffle and unrest in the campus, sources said.
later Sibaram and his family members and relatives went to the Superintendent Office but no one listened to them there. They soon shouted at the authorities and sat on a dharna there demanding the male child. Apprehending untoward incidents, a police team reached the dharna site and brought the situation under control.
Meanwhile, MKCG Medical College Hospital Superintendent Professor Ashok Behera has handed over all the papers related to the patient. The Police have started an investigation into the matter to unfold the truth, sources said.
“Immediately after a new child is born, information like gender of child, birth time, names of the parents and the foot prints are usually recorded and a unique number is subscribed in the hand of the newborn baby to avoid a swap. But this incident has brought everyone to surprise,” said an observer.