Baby death, child lifting trigger chaos in hospitals

HOWRAH: A baby death and a child lifter kept the authoriti es of Howrah District Hospi tal and Uluberia State Gene ral Hospital on their toes on Friday .
While a newborn died in the Howrah hospital soon af ter birth, a child lifter was caught red-handed at the Ulu beria hospital while she was trying to escape with an ai ling baby from the paediatric ward.Police have arrested the child lifter, while a probe has been initiated against the gynaecologist who was in charge of the delivery at the Howrah hospital.
Subrato Samanta, the gy naecologist, was severely be aten up by the relatives of Ri ya Bit, whose baby died wit hin hours of delivery . The ba by developed breathing problem soon after birth. Riy a's husband Sona called the doctor and nurse, who allegedly didn't attend to the baby .
Hospital super Narayan Chatterjee said, “We have started a probe against the doctor and the nurse and also lodged a complaint against those who roughed up the doc tor.“ OC of Howrah, Tathagat ha Pandey , said, “We are pro bing the matter.“
Around 10 am at Uluberia State General Hospital, 28-ye ar-old Ismatara Begum of Uluberia's Nimdighi managed to climb up to the second floor paediatric ward. On the bed next to the ward's entran ce, Asmina Begum's seven month-old son Ashique was admitted with fever. After fee ding her baby , Asmina went to take bath.
Finding no one beside the baby , Ismatara lifted the baby.She immediately headed for the stairs with the baby in her lap. Firoza Bibi, the mother of another baby undergoing treatment there, came out and challenged Ismatara. In a huff, Ismatara kicked Firoza and continued running. But Firoza raised an alarm follo wing which the nurses and ward boys caught Ismatara and rescued Ashique.
Officers from Uluberia police station reached the hospital and arrested Ismatara.
During interrogation, she confessed that she was a child lifter who was paid by two Uluberia-based agents, Sheikh Saidul and Sheikh Basir. She told police that she would be paid Rs 10,000 for each girl and Rs 15,000 for a boy.
She also revealed that her agents would sell each baby for Rs 50,000 to Rs 1 lakh to childless couples.
Hospital super Sudip Kanrar admitted that hospital staff were responsible for the incident. Howrah SP Sukesh Jain said they have arrested the accused.