Rajasthan HC notice to govt. on death of infants

Petitioner claims 165 babies had died in the hospital in the past six months because of negligence.

A public interest litigation petition on the recent death of 16 newborn babies in Ajmer’s Jawaharlal Nehru Government Hospital was filed in the Rajasthan High Court.

Based on the petition the court has issued notices to the State's Chief Secretary, Principal Medical and Health Secretary and five others.

‘Insensitive remark’

Seeking immediate action for stopping further deaths, petitioner Madhav Prapanna Swami claimed that 165 infants had died in the hospital during the past six months because of negligence of doctors and paramedical staff.

The petition said a doctor at the hospital's Paediatrics Department had made an insensitive remark about these deaths, calling them the “law of nature”.

The newborns were mostly underweight and had been referred from smaller hospitals in the nearby towns.

Officials issued notices

A Division Bench comprising Justice Ajay Rastogi and Justice D.C. Somani issued notices on Monday to the Chief Secretary, Principal Medical and Health Secretary, Principal Public Health Engineering Secretary, JLN Hospital's Superintendent, Head of Paediatrics Department, JLN Medical College Principal and Principal of Jaipur's Sawai Man Singh Medical College.

The petitioner also raised the issue of 20 patients in Jaipur having been identified as suffering from cholera, while pointing out that it was a notified disease requiring immediate measures for control.

Panel appointed

Meanwhile, the JLN Hospital has appointed a three-member committee to probe the deaths and decided to conduct “death audits” of infants to ascertain if the death was caused due to any lapse in medical care or the infant was already in a serious condition that made its survival difficult.