In a heart-wrenching incident amidst the devastating Chennai floods, a 20-year-old woman, Sowmya, delivered a stillborn baby at home on 6 December 2023 as they could not go to a hospital owing to the floods in their locality, Pulianthope. Despite desperate attempts to find an ambulance, the inundated neighbourhood posed insurmountable challenges. The family’s anguish continued after the stillborn delivery. With no means to sever the umbilical cord and unable to secure an ambulance, compassionate neighbors used a cycle rickshaw to transport the mother and child to G3 hospital. Encountering locked gates and unresponsive staff at G3, they sought help at Muthu Hospital, where treatment was reluctantly administered after police intervention.
Amidst the family’s distress, the tragedy deepened at Kilpauk Medical College and Hospital (KMC). Disturbingly, on December 10, the grief-stricken father, Masood, a daily wage worker, received the stillborn baby’s body in a cardboard carton. Masood alleged that hospital staff demanded a bribe of ₹2,500 for the baby’s cremation, a fee he couldn’t afford.
Meanwhile, the mother, Sowmya, remains hospitalized and is undergoing treatment. The baby girl’s body was transferred to the hospital mortuary following a comprehensive examination by the paediatrician. Shockingly, after a police inquiry, the body was handed over to the father on December 10, without any proper shrouding, highlighting a lapse in the hospital’s procedures.
In response to the distressing incident, a staff member of Chennai’s Government Kilpauk Medical College Hospital has been suspended.
The Dean of KMC, R Muthuselvan, has formed a three-member panel of senior doctors to investigate the incident. The hospital, responding to media reports, suspended the staff involved on Monday (11 December 2023). Dr. Muthuselvan stated that the committee, instructed by the Director of Medical Education and Research, aims to examine why the staff failed to use appropriate wrapping materials, despite the availability. The hospital emphasized that corrective actions, including staff suspension and departmental action, have been taken.
Talking to the press on the matter, Minister M. Subramanian stated, “The parents requested to give the mortal remains of their child without post-mortem. It is customary to tie white cloth all over the body during an autopsy. But if the parents had asked to wrap the child’s body with cloths, we would have given it. They didn’t ask for anything,”.
I don't believe he would actually have said this. The body of the baby was handed over to the parents in a cardboard box and the Minister says that had the parents asked for a sheet to cover the body they would have given one? 🤦 https://t.co/bfDHk3Epum
— Sumanth Raman (@sumanthraman) December 11, 2023
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