Power failure on the New Year’s Day midnight allegedly led to the death of four newborn babies at a major government-run medical college hospital in Bihar, causing angry protests by hundreds of people on Monday and forcing the state government to order a probe.
Three of the newborns died in the incubators that reportedly stopped functioning as power went off in the paediatrics department ICU of the Darbhanga Medical College and Hospital (DMCH) in northern Bihar. Relatives of the dead babies, who were full of joy to have the child births on the New Year’s Day, later alleged that electricity supply remained disconnected in the ICU for over five hours and no alternative measures were taken. DMCH authorities were yet to confirm that the deaths were due to power outages, but sources said disciplinary action was already recommended against the deputy superintendent and some other doctors.
“The paediatrics ICU at DMCH does not have dedicated generators like in several other critical care units. Staff and doctors at this ICU paid little attention to the babies as they were still busy celebrating the New Year’s Day,” said a DMCH source.
In power-starved Bihar, which depends on central power allocation almost entirely since its own generation is still low and unreliable, the newborns’ deaths blamed on power outages brought serious embarrassment to the Nitish Kumar-led JD(U)-BJP coalition government that claims of steady economic growth. It was the first time that the death of newborn babies was blamed on power outage at a major state-run hospital.
Bihar’s health minister Ashwini Kumar Choubey denied that power failure caused the four newborns’ deaths and attributed it to diseases the newborns might be suffering.
“I was informed that neither any negligence by the doctors nor power failure was behind these deaths,” he said.