Two male infants died at the Government Kilpauk Medical College & Hospital (KMC) early on Saturday morning. The distraught parents and relatives alleged medical negligence on the part of the doctors, but the hospital said both the babies had died due to a bacterial infection caused by Klebsiella.
According to mothers S. Saranya (23) and M. Rasathi (22), both the babies were born less than a month ago at KMC, one day apart. At that time, both were healthy and were discharged. They were the women's first children. While Ms. Saranya is from Thirumazhisai, Ms. Rasathi lives near Avadi.
On January 7, the parents came to KMC for the BCG vaccination for their children.
“A day later, my grandson fell ill with fever. The very next day we brought him to KMC and he was admitted in the ICU. We were not allowed to see him at all. Treatment was delayed for several days and the doctors would not tell us anything. Then, early this morning, they told us he had passed away,” said Dhanam, the baby's grandmother, weeping.
Ms. Saranya's family too claimed that no proper treatment was given, and because of the holiday season, only PG students were available. The babies were admitted to the hospital a day apart, on January 9 and 10.
Doctors at KMC, however, said the babies had both come in with a bacterial infection. “A culture was taken and it was positive for Klebsiella. Both babies were put on antibiotics and admitted to the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU), but after a few days, did not respond to treatment,” said Dean N. Gunasekaran.
Health secretary J. Radhkrishnan said the infection had nothing to do with the vaccines the children had received. Fifty one children had received the BCG vaccine at the hospital that day.
“There are video monitors at the NICU and the babies were monitored constantly. We cannot liberally allow people inside the NICU where infection control is key. We have performed a verbal autopsy and a facility audit over the incident,” he said.
