Dead baby eaten by rats at Chennai hospital

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Relatives of an 11-day-old girl that died in an incubator at the Kasturba Gandhi government hospital here gheraoed the maternity ward on Monday, after the dead infant’s face was eaten by bandicoots at the hospital.

When the baby’s father received her body, he was shocked to see that her left cheek and a bit of her nose had been gnawed on by rats, allegedly while it was still in the neo-natal ICU where many ailing and premature babies are kept in incubators.

Hospital officials initially claimed that infection in the infant’s blood had caused the skin on her face to peel off, but the preliminary post mortem report confirmed that rodents had gnawed upon the baby’s face. The father, Ranjit Kumar said that his daughter was born premature on August 15, after his wife Malar was taken for an emergency C-section.

“The infant was very ill and they put her in an incubator. My wife saw her even on Sunday morning and she seemed fine. I received a call Sunday evening from a nurse, informing me that the baby was dead.”

Ranjit Kumar, a cleaner at a private company, rushed to the hospital to see the baby and was shocked to find her face mangled and bloody. “When I asked the nurse what had happened, she said casually that rats might have bitten her,” said the grieving father.

The hospital later changed its stance and said that rats probably chewed on the infant’s face in the mortuary. The family claims that the disfigured body was still in the incubator when they first saw it. Disgusted by the possibility that there were flesh-eating bandicoots scampering around the maternity hospital, a huge crowd of relatives and neighbours gathered outside to stage a protest.

The RMO, Dr M Ramesh tried to pacify the family and said that the child had died of sepsis, an infective condition that can cause the skin to peel off. The overgrown campus and dilapidated buildings of the 127-year-old maternity hospital in Triplicane, however, seems to be a breeding ground for rodents, flies and mosquitoes.

Squatters and families of gypsies live within the premises, alongside colonies of hungry rats that feed on the mounds of garbage and food thrown out by visitors and vendors.