Even after the death of a 16-month-old baby girl, authorities at the capital’s Japan Bangladesh Friendship Hospital had allegedly been keeping her lifeless body on life support at the ICU, without notifying the family about her passing.
The incident was only revealed when a mobile court, accompanied by RAB 2 and led by Executive Magistrate Helal Uddin, carried out a drive at the Jigatola hospital.
The child, Sumaiya Sabah, was admitted to the hospital on Monday with breathing problems. She was immediately taken to the ICU, where she remained away from her family until she died.
However, the exact time of her death could not be known.
The mobile court was first notified by the child’s mother about the secretive role being played by the hospital staff.
“She [the mother] came to us and alleged that the hospital authorities are not giving any clear information regarding the health condition of her daughter. Based on her allegation, I forcefully entered the ICU as the behaviour of the ICU staff seemed suspicious, and found that the baby was already dead,” said Dr Mohammad Shahjahan, a member of the mobile court.
“For further confirmation, I took the stethoscope to check the baby’s heartbeats, but found none. Later, I asked the on-duty doctor to check again. The doctor confirmed that she was already dead,” he added.
But hospital authorities claimed they did not notice when Sumaiya had died.
The official cause of death was mentioned as brain inflammation, pneumonia, and virus infection.
Baby Sumaiya’s mother, Sourabh Binte Islam, told the Dhaka Tribune that she could feel something was wrong even before the mobile court had arrived.
“I approached the doctors several times to know about the latest physical condition of my daughter, suspecting something was wrong.
“But they were not letting me know anything clear. Instead, they took my signature on four papers which did not contain any detail about my baby’s health condition,” the mother said.
Sourabh said she was allowed to go into the ICU earlier yesterday morning to see her daughter, but what she saw made her suspect that Sumaiya might have already been dead.
During that visit, the mother noticed that Sumaiya’s skin colour had faded and her body had become stiff.
But the on-duty doctor pointed to machine readings and claimed that the girl was still alive.
When Dr Shahjahan, who is an assistant director at DGHS, was asked whether negligence might have caused the death, he said the baby’s case history showed that it would have been difficult to save her.
But negligence was definitely found in the hospital’s treatment, he added.
Doctors at Japan Bangladesh Friendship Hospital failed to form a medical board, which should have been done yesterday morning, Dr Shahjahan said.
Also, the room being used as an intensive care unit (ICU) could be best described as a septic ward, the DGHS official added.
When contacted, Hospital CEO Dr RM Samiul Hasan refused to comment.
“I cannot comment on the issue before consulting the doctor concerned as it is a specialised matter,” Dr Samiul said.
The baby’s uncle, Ahmed Aurangzeb, said the family would not be filing any case.
Meanwhile, the mobile court fined the private hospital a total Tk1.15 million for not fulfilling three major criteria including keeping unauthorised drugs and issuing diagnostic reports without any expert’s authorisation.
