No dignity in death? Babies bodies dumped in makeshift mortuary

TownEcho

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Follow us:WhatsappFacebookTwitterTelegram.cls-1{fill:#4d4d4d;}.cls-2{fill:#fff;}Google NewsPassing through the gates of the Government Kasturba Gandhi Hospital on Monday morning, the first thing that greeted me was a pile of cow dung. Carefully avoiding it, I went in to enquire about the events that unfolded earlier in the day. Apart from a few stray plastic covers and papers, the facade of the main block looked freshly cleaned for the cameras — even the dustbins and other paraphernalia used were still near the entrance.The stairs leading to the rear entrance of the premature babies’ intensive care unit (ICU) were dark and dirty, with paan-stained walls and a pile of old slippers pushed into one corner. Peeking through the grill gate, I asked one of the nurses if I could enter. The wooden door on the other side of the gate was slammed shut without a word in reply.While searching for the Resident Medical Officer (RMO), another journalist and I took a wrong turn, ending up walking to the rear of the hospital. Here we found more cow dung, piled up rubbish and breeding ground for insects. Other reporters and photographers who reached the hospital said they saw rats and bandicoots freely roaming around. We could hardly believe that we were on the campus of a hospital in the heart of the city.More surprises were in store, as we found the RMO and accompanied him to the front entrance of the infants’ ICU. What we thought was a closed-off extra corridor turned out to be a makeshift mortuary for infants.“This is where we keep the infants that die, before handing them over to the families,” he told us. A few baby-sized stainless steel tables were lined up against one wall; the parallel wall was an open grill.A pile of tangled tubes were found in a corner and there was no visible refrigeration or air-conditioning there. It was a heart wrenching sight to see the tiny baby, face bandaged and wrapped in a towel, spending her last hours in such a place.first published:August 28, 2012, 08:21 ISTlast updated:August 28, 2012, 08:21 IST
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Passing through the gates of the Government Kasturba Gandhi Hospital on Monday morning, the first thing that greeted me was a pile of cow dung. Carefully avoiding it, I went in to enquire about the events that unfolded earlier in the day. Apart from a few stray plastic covers and papers, the facade of the main block looked freshly cleaned for the cameras — even the dustbins and other paraphernalia used were still near the entrance.

The stairs leading to the rear entrance of the premature babies’ intensive care unit (ICU) were dark and dirty, with paan-stained walls and a pile of old slippers pushed into one corner. Peeking through the grill gate, I asked one of the nurses if I could enter. The wooden door on the other side of the gate was slammed shut without a word in reply.

While searching for the Resident Medical Officer (RMO), another journalist and I took a wrong turn, ending up walking to the rear of the hospital. Here we found more cow dung, piled up rubbish and breeding ground for insects. Other reporters and photographers who reached the hospital said they saw rats and bandicoots freely roaming around. We could hardly believe that we were on the campus of a hospital in the heart of the city.

More surprises were in store, as we found the RMO and accompanied him to the front entrance of the infants’ ICU. What we thought was a closed-off extra corridor turned out to be a makeshift mortuary for infants.

“This is where we keep the infants that die, before handing them over to the families,” he told us. A few baby-sized stainless steel tables were lined up against one wall; the parallel wall was an open grill.

A pile of tangled tubes were found in a corner and there was no visible refrigeration or air-conditioning there. It was a heart wrenching sight to see the tiny baby, face bandaged and wrapped in a towel, spending her last hours in such a place.