MP Hospital reports 46 newborn deaths in 3 months, BJP MLA seeks accountability
Seoni: The deaths of 46 newborns within three months at the Special Newborn Care Unit (SNCU) of Seoni District Hospital in Madhya Pradesh have raised concerns over neonatal care, complaints from grieving families about treatment, and questions from a local BJP MLA over the absence of doctors.
According to hospital data, the SNCU admitted 592 babies between July 1 and September 30, of whom 46 died. The unit recorded 80 newborn deaths during the six months from April 1 to September 30.
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Civil Surgeon Dr Vinod Kumar Navkar attributed the deaths primarily to premature births, low birth weight and the critical condition of babies referred to the hospital from different parts of the district. He also pointed to a lack of support from the medical college's paediatrics department.
Meanwhile, several families have raised questions about the treatment their newborns received at the hospital.
A resident of Dungariya village in Barghat block alleged that his wife did not receive timely attention after being admitted on July 12 or 13. “We admitted my wife to the hospital, but nobody paid attention. Two days passed. They gave her an injection but did not explain anything,” he said. He said his wife continued to leak fluid, and a nurse told her to press her abdomen. Doctors initially attempted a normal delivery before performing an operation, he alleged, reports India Today.
The couple's first child was born on July 15 and weighed approximately three kilograms. The newborn was admitted to the SNCU after developing breathing difficulties and an abnormal heartbeat but died a few hours later.
“The doctors told us that the baby had not cried, so it would be difficult for him to survive,” he said.
Another grieving father, of Jawarkathi village in Barghat, said he lost his first child six days after a premature delivery on September 7.
According to him, the baby was born during the seventh month of pregnancy and weighed around 1.6 kilograms.
He said his wife was initially treated for low amniotic fluid levels. When she subsequently began bleeding, she was taken to Barghat before being referred to Seoni District Hospital, where she delivered shortly after admission.
“The doctor said the baby’s heartbeat was slow and that he would need to be put on a machine,” he said.
The newborn remained in the SNCU for several days. He alleged that doctors later informed the family that the baby needed to be shifted to another machine. The child died a few hours later
Following reports of the newborn deaths, local BJP MLA Dinesh Rai visited Seoni District Hospital and inspected the SNCU. During his visit, he questioned the absence of doctors at the facility. Rai said that he would raise the matter with the district collector and the Chief Minister.
Civil Surgeon Dr Vinod Kumar Navkar said the SNCU treats critically ill newborns referred from remote rural areas across the district. Many are born prematurely or have low birth weight, while some suffer from oxygen deprivation, making their treatment particularly challenging.
As per India Today, “Over the past six months, we treated 1,188 babies, of whom 642 weighed less than normal. We could not save 60 of those babies,” he said. Navkar put the unit’s mortality rate at 7.5 per cent and said it was lower than that of other districts in the Jabalpur division. He said the hospital had sought support from the attached medical college’s paediatrics department, but a duty roster for its doctors had not been prepared. “If those doctors are assigned duties here, we can do better,” Navkar said.
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