Within only a span of 24 hours, at least 32 people including ten children have died at the Sylhet MAG Osmani Medical College Hospital – a number that doctors themselves admitted was “unusual” for a single day.
The relatives of the deceased blamed the “negligence” of the doctors for the deaths; but the hospital authority said all of the deaths since Monday morning were natural – with many of the fatalities being caused by chronic life-threatening conditions.
Among the dead, there are ten children including five newborns; all of them were between the ages of only one day and three-and-a-half years.
Many of the family members of the deceased children claimed that it was either wrong treatment or the negligence of the doctors that had caused the deaths.
However, the hospital’s Deputy Director Dr Abdus Salam claimed that since 8am Monday ten children had died from natural reasons including postnatal attack, bronchopneumonia, neonatal sepsis and intestinal obstruction.
“Three to four children die every day in the hospital because of different post-delivery complexities. But this time the number of deaths is unusual,”
Dr Abdus Salam said. He, however, assured that there was no reason for panic.
During January, a total of 433 patients including 62 children died at the hospital – averaging a little over 14 deaths a day, the hospital deputy director said.
To make sure there was no negligence involved in the children’s deaths, the hospital authorities also formed a six-member probe committee, headed by the hospital’s chief of medicine Dr Ismail Patwari. The committee has been asked to submit its report within seven working days.
According to hospital sources, the adults who died during the 24-hour span had passed away from various medical conditions. Four had died after suffering a stroke, two died following a road accident, two from myocardial infarction or a heart attack, four from septicemia, two from cardiac arrest, two from metastatic cancer, and one each from encephalitis, poisoning, assault, pulmonary tuberculosis, and diabetic ketoacidosis, while one person was brought dead to the hospital.
Heartbreak for the families
The first-born son of Al-Amin from Brahmanbaria was born at the hospital on Sunday; but the family’s joy was short-lived as the infant died at around 3am yesterday.
The father told the Dhaka Tribune that the newborn stopped drinking breast-milk from Monday evening. After doctors were notified, the infant was given an injection at around 10pm; two hours later, the child started to have a seizure.
A doctor then came and supplied oxygen to the child, Al-Amin said, while another injection was given at around 12:30am. The child’s condition continued to deteriorate and he died hours later.
Blaming wrong treatment by the doctors, the father claimed that the two injections might have led to his child’s death.
“Around 6am, I was looking for a doctor to complaint about this issue, but I could not find any physician. When I went to the nurses, I was scolded and turned away,” said Al-Amin, a fish trader.
Visiting ward numbers 22, 23, and 24 – the three paediatrics wards where the children died – the Dhaka Tribune yesterday found that the rooms were overcrowded with patients and their caregivers.
Tahmina Begum, who had been staying at the hospital since giving birth last week, said she saw a child – Mehedi – at a neighbouring bed die because there was no doctor to attend to his needs.
“Two-and-a-half-year-old Mehedi’s mother frantically searched for the respective doctor for the paediatrics ward. Despite looking for him five or six times, she could not find him. At one point, the child died right in front of the mother,” Tahmina said.
Roksana Begum, mother of a child admitted at the hospital, claimed that doctors and nurses were not taking care of her daughter Sheuli, who had been suffering for the past six days with diarrhoea at the hospital.
Health Ministry’s reaction
Meanwhile, the Health Ministry formed a three-member committee, led by Joint Secretary (hospitals) Mosharraf Hossain, to look into the deaths and submit its report within seven days.
In a press briefing yesterday, State Minister for Health Zahid Maleque told journalists that the government was considering the deaths with importance. He also mentioned that the ongoing hartals and blockade were delaying patients from reaching the hospital, making it difficult for the doctors to treat them.
When contacted by the Dhaka Tribune, Abul Kalam Azad, additional DG of the Directorate General of Health Services, said authorities concerned at the hospital have informed him that the deaths of the children were “not unusual.” Four of the children had died because of conditions related to premature births, he quoted Sylhet doctors as saying, adding that the others had died from natural causes as well.
Dismissing any possible negligence at the hospital, the ADG said if there was any mismanagement at the hospital – such high numbers of death would have been a regular occurrence.
