Newborn dies as doctors fight at govt hospital

FATEHABAD: A couple lost their newborn boy due to alleged medical negligence as two doctors got into an altercation in Fatehabad general hospital on Wednesday.
Rajesh Kumar, a mechanic, said he had come with his wife Riya, 25, to the hospital for her delivery on Wednesday and she delivered a baby boy around 7pm. "The condition of the baby was not good and the doctors first shifted him to the special newborn care unit.Around 10.30pm, I noticed that the two doctors were exchanging blows over some issue and a nurse told me to shift the baby to Hisar. As we were making arrangements to leave for Hisar, my child died," Rajesh said.
Paediatrician Varun Munjal and Rahul Midha, the doctor on duty in the special care unit from 2pm to 8pm, blamed each other for the baby's death.
Midha said he was in the operation theatre with a gynaecologist and an anaesthetist for another caesarian when Munjal entered the special care unit and did not attend the baby who was on oxygen support. Munjal alleged the "child died due to Midha's negligence, who first did not resuscitate the baby properly and then put a pipe into the baby's food pipe instead of the windpipe and administered him injections which were clearly contraindicated in such cases".
Medical superintendent of the hospital Vinod Sharma said, "The newborn died due to a complication and not due to negligence of doctors. I would know the case better after an inquiry".
Civil surgeon Suraj Bhan Kamboj later ordered a departmental inquiry into the matter and handed the probe to medical superintendent Vinod Sharma.