M A I N   N E W S

18 children die at govt hospital in Kolkata; probe ordered
Subhrangshu Gupta/TNS

Kolkata, June 30
The death of 18 children, including some newborns, at the state-run Dr BC Roy Government Hospital for Children, Fulbagan, in east Kolkata today triggered protests by residents, prompting the state government to order an inquiry into the incident.

The children, suffering from high fever, were brought to the hospital from different parts of Kolkata over the past 48 hours. However, they died one after another before the doctors could diagnose the disease.

Several bereaved patients alleged the doctors did not attend to the patients for several hours. They also alleged that the patients were given wrong medicine without ascertaining the actual disease, resulting in such a large number of deaths.

The aggrieved patients, their relatives and other people staged demonstrations on the hospital premises, demanding criminal action against doctors and nurses who did not take necessary steps in time for the children’s treatment. They also demanded the resignation of the hospital superintendent.

Some doctors admitted that they could not properly treat the children as their blood and other pathological test reports were not immediately available. They suspected the deaths could be due to encephalitis.

Meanwhile, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, who also looks after the Health Department, has denied that the deaths were due to encephalitis. The symptoms indicated that the children had been the victims of large-scale viral infections, she said.

She ordered a high-level inquiry for ascertaining the cause of such a large number of deaths. The report would be available within next 48 hours, she said.

Describing the incident as shocking and surprising, she said during the previous Left Front rule, there were several incidents of children’s death at the hospital due to improper medical arrangements, but nothing was done to upgrade the hospital. However, now her government would take up various development schemes at the hospital to upgrade it to the international level, she said.