NEW DELHI:
Child deaths at BRD Medical College in Gorakhpur have come back to haunt the Uttar Pradesh government three months after a similar incident created a national uproar.
BRD Hospital’s head of department of community medicine Dr DK Srivastava said 30 children died within 48 hours. However, he said, the deaths did not take place due to lack of oxygen like last time.
“Out of the 30, 15 children were younger than one month. If children younger than one month are not treated urgently, their mortality rate increases. Six kids died due to encephalitis, while the others died due to various reasons,” Srivastava was quoted as saying by ANI.
Encephalitis is the swelling in the brain that leads to sudden high fever, headache, neck stiffness, disorientation, coma, seizures, spastic paralysis and, finally, death. In August, over 70 children had died in a span of five days and the incident had grabbed national attention after reports said the hospital faced a shortage of oxygen supply at that time.
Although the state government had denied the reports, the then college principal, the in-charge of the neo-natal ward as well as clerks and the pharmacist were sacked for negligence. An FIR was lodged against them, as well as the supplier of liquid oxygen to the hospital.
