Negligent doctors at Dhaka Medical College Hospital (DMCH) nearly caused a newborn to be buried alive yesterday, after they issued a death certificate to an unresponsive one-day-old who was still alive.
Preparations for the neonate’s funeral had been completed and the grave site was being dug when passers-by noticed the shrouded figure moving and halted the burial.
But when the relieved but upset family was back at Dhaka Medical College Hospital (DMCH) with the newborn at 1:30pm, a DMCH doctor snatched away the death certificate and tore it up, family members said.
The baby is now undergoing treatment in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU).
In December last year, a DMCH patient, reported to have been neglected by doctors because she appeared to be a vagabond, was declared dead but came back to life while being carted off to the Dhaka Medical College morgue.
Declared dead
Jahangir Alam was moments away from committing his one-day-old son Sobahan to the earth at Azimpur Graveyard around noon yesterday when students of Shaheed Begum Sheikh Fazilatunnesa Mujib Government College, who were passing by, noticed the tiny figure moving.
Oni Islam, a first-year student of the college, said: “We stopped the father from burying the infant after we noticed it moving inside its shroud.”
According to the DMCH admission registrar, the infant’s mother, Sultana Akther, 28, of Cunkutia in Keraniganj was admitted to the hospital around 10pm Friday with labour pains.
Two hours later, she gave birth to a three-month premature baby. The newborn required oxygen support.
The infant’s maternal grandmother, Hanufa Begum, said, soon after the birth, DMCH doctors suggested that the baby be admitted to the Children’s Hospital.
“But it was night, so we decided to keep the baby at DMCH with oxygen support and wait for morning so the boy’s father, a worker of a steel factory, could arrange money for treatment,” she said.
“At 9am, the baby was unresponsive so we contacted the doctors and they, without checking anything, issued a death certificate and told us the baby had died,” Hanufa said.
Sultana was being treated at ward 212 under the MAT-II unit in the gynaecology department of DMCH under supervision of Prof Dr Iffat Ara.
Asked how this could have happened, DMCH Director Brig Gen Mustafizur Rahman said: “Undoubtedly, this was a great mistake. The doctor should not have issued the [death] certificate without a proper check-up.”
“We have taken steps to move against those responsible for this and a four-member probe body will give its report within the next five days,” he said.
The committee, headed by surgery department Associate Prof ABM Jamal, includes Medicine department Associate Prof Dr Sudip Ranjan Day, Gynaecology resident surgeon Chowdhury Taslima Nasrin and DMCH Deputy Director ASM Sahidullah.
Probe in progress
Brig Gen Mustafizur said the committee would investigate exactly how the death certificate came to be issued.
He said according to hospital protocol, only the on-duty assistant registrar has the authority to issue death certificates.
But the hospital director would not name who was responsible.
Sources at the hospital confirmed to the Dhaka Tribune that Assistant Registrar Dr Meherunnessa was on duty at the time. She was not available to comment about the matter.
Professor Dr Ferdousi Islam, head of gynaecology at DMCH, said: “The woman gave birth to the child prematurely and could not give a clear idea about her pregnancy.”
“Besides, she had not gone to a doctor during the six months of her pregnancy which caused confusion leading to a misunderstanding,” she added.
“Despite all this, because the neonatal ICU had no vacancies, we asked the baby’s parents to shift the child to another hospital but they would not listen to us,” Dr Ferdousi said.
“In medical terms, a 24 to 26 week premature birth is described in medical terms as ‘clinically dead’,” she said.
Dr Ferdousi said in these cases, a baby might be unresponsive for up to 48 hours. Doctors, failing to see a response from the infant, might have issued the death certificate.
Still at risk
Prof Dr Abid Hossain Mollah, head of the paediatric unit of DMCH, said the baby was born 28 weeks prematurely and weighed just 1200 grammes which means it will be difficult for it to survive.
“The baby is now in an incubator and if he survives, it will be a rare case,” he added.
The chief of the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, Prof Dr Eklasur Rahman, said: “The baby is breathing with the support of ventilation machine, a very costly treatment. At any other hospital, it would cost nearly Tk50,000 per day.”
“The baby was born prematurely and was hypothermic. The machine keeps him warm. If he can survive inside there, his brain and other organs will mature,” Dr Eklas said.
This is the second time in recent memory that DMCH doctors mistakenly declared a living patient dead.
In early December last year, doctors mistakenly declared a woman dead but four hours afterwards, she started moving while being taken to the morgue.
She died a day after her apparent revival, but was only declared dead after proper pathological tests were conducted.
This time, three hours after doctors declared him dead, little Sobahan showed signs of life.