15-day-old infant sustains severe burns in Alwar hospital

ALWAR/JAIPUR: A 15-day-old baby girl suffered serious burns on her face after a paediatric ward in a hospital caught fire because of a short circuit. The girl was in an incubator and following the short circuit there was leakage in the oxygen supply pipe connected to the mask which was on her mouth due to which her face suffered 80% burns. A committee has been formed to look into the negligence on the part of the hospital. The infant was admitted to Geetanand Children Hospital in Alwar a ago back and was said to be recovering when the incident happened on Tuesday morning. She was referred to Jaipur for further treatment. She is currently battling for life. Her father Rahul Gaur told TOI, “We got my daughter admitted a week back as she was suffering from breathing problems. However, after treatment she recovering and we saw her on Monday at 10pm when she was absolutely fine. Around 5am on Tuesday, we got a call from the hospital asking us to rush there as there had been some kind of emergency. This is sheer negligence on the part of the hospital staff who slept off during the night when they should have been taking care of my baby. They would not let us enter the ward and were responsible for taking care of all the children admitted there but they failed in their duty.”Apart from the infant, there were 14 other children in the ward at the time of the incident though they all were rescued on time. Meanwhile, the hospital officials claimed that they were taking necessary measures to ensure that such accidents don’t happen in future. Hospital’s chief medical health officer Sunil Chauhan said, “The child’s face was burnt and she will need plastic surgery. We have called electricians to inspect the ward and make the necessary changes so that this kind of incident is not repeated in future.” A team of state’s health department also reached Alwar and will conduct an inquiry into the matter, the report for which is to be submitted in 24 hours.