Newborn dies of rodent bite at GGH in Guntur

A shocking incident, a newborn baby was bitten by rodents in the neonatal surgical ward of the Government General Hospital (GGH) in Guntur and died a few hours later on Wednesday. The baby had undergone surgery for epiperiasis, a congenital disorder, on August 20 and had been under ventilator support since then.

Born to Chavali Naga Raju and Lakshmi, residents of Vijayawada, on August 17 at GGH, Vijayawada, the baby was shifted to Guntur in a critical condition. She had been born with a congenital disorder, bladder exstrophy, a condition marked by protrusion of the urinary bladder through a defect in the abdominal wall.

“They (staff at Government General Hospital Guntur) are responsible for the death of my child. We had been complaining about the presence of rodents for some days, but they did not take any action. We want our child back,’’ said a sobbing Mrs Lakshmi.

The rodents inflicted wounds on the face and chest of the newborn, who died within hours.

Mrs. Lakshmi said she noticed that the newborn had been lying still at 5 am Wednesday.

The hospital’s superintendent T. Venugopala Rao said a probe by senior doctors has been ordered into the incident and action would be taken against those responsible for lapses.

“The presence of rodents had come to our notice on Monday morning and I asked the engineering wing to carry out repairs to the false ceiling, but unfortunately this morning, the rodents attacked the newborn again,’’ said Dr Venugopala Rao.