18 newborns die in Ahmedabad civil hospital

The death of nearly 18 newborn infants in the Ahmedabad civil hospital in the last 3 days has led to huge uproar about the lack of facilities including health personnel in the government hospital. The deaths occurred in the Neonatal intensive care unit(NICU) and included many low birth weight newborns.
But the Gujarat government immediately went into damage control mode and denied any kind of negligence on their part and put down the deaths to serious conditions and natural causes. “Of the nine deaths in 24 hours, five babies were referred from distant places — Lunawada, Surendranagar, Mansa, Viramgam, Himmatnagar — and were having severe life threatening conditions such as extremely low birth weight (around 1.1 kg), hyaline membrane disease, early onset septicaemia and disseminated intra-vascular coagulation,” the government said in a statement today.

Complete neglect of the public health?

The average number of deaths of newborns in the Ahmedabad civil hospital is five to six per day. A large number of newborns were referred to the hospital from far-off places due to unavailability of doctors and hospitals due to Diwali holidays.
A probe has been ordered into the deaths of newborns. With polls around the corner, the state is under a virtual siege. The Congress has accused the BJP state government of complete neglect of the public health sector leading to this tragedy.