In these days of wild rumour, a bizarre “news” kept thousands of people, especially kids, in Hyderabad awake on Wednesday night. Word spread that a newborn child had spoken to its parents warning them that anyone who fell asleep would die.
The buzz which began after 11 pm mainly spread through phone calls and by word of mouth. Surprisingly, not many SMSes were sent out.
Ultimately, the police had to intervene and inform people that the rumour was baseless even as residents of Talabkatta, Yakutpura, Shaheen Nagar, Santosh Nagar etc. spent the night with their children outside their houses.
Initially, the rumour was that a divine baby born in Shaheen Nagar, beyond Barkas, had spoken to its parents that anyone who slept at night would die, even if they were children. Later it was said that the baby was born in Phadishareef area. Apparently, the divine baby was born with several legs and hands and it had also said that “doomsday was nearing”.
The police patrolled parts of Hyderabad throughout the night and tried to persuade people to go inside and get some sleep. And though the cops kept announcing on megaphones that it was a baseless rumour, people kept up their vigil almost till morning.
Parents kept their children awake by sending them outside the house and making them watch the local TV channels to know the latest on the rumour.
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Infant dies of ventilator shortage
PRABEER SIKDAR
WARANGAL, Aug. 23
In yet another case of infant mortality at MGM Hospital’s Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU), a 16-day-old boy died on Thursday morning due to alleged shortage of ventilators. For eight days, the child was on Bag Valve Mask resuscitator or ambu-bag support and was being manually administered oxygen by his parents.
The deceased baby’s parents blamed the hospital for not providing ventilator support for their child. Sources said that the baby had been admitted to the hospital’s NICU ward six days after being born.