Kota infant death toll reaches 113; water leakage from ceiling floods children's ICU

ANI Photo

New Delhi: Despite the visit of many prominent faces and senior leaders after the deaths of over hundred of children in JK Lon Hospital in Rajasthan's Kota, not much has been done by the administration to improve the situation. According to the latest report, water continues to drip from the ceiling of the Pediatric intensive care unit (PICU) ward at the hospital. Noticing the leakage, the hospital administration spread clothes on the floor to stop water from spreading. 

More than 110 kids have died in Kota`s JK hospital in the last 35 days due to hypothermia, a medical emergency that occurs when the body temperature falls below 95 degrees F (35 degrees C). The normal body temperature is 98.6 degrees F (37 degrees C).

A hospital official said there were many equipments which wanted just a small piece of wire costing around Rs 2 to start functioning, but there was no one to look into the issue as the heads of the concerned department were busy fulfilling their self seeking goals.

According to hospital employees, the tussle between former hospital superintendent HL Meena and Head of Department (HOD) paediatrician Amritlal Bairwa, who was removed on Sunday, was responsible for bringing the hospital to the messy condition.

Hospital employees told IANS that while Bairwa acted like a guest of honour who rarely visited the hospital, Meena never looked into the poor state of affairs of hospital's life-saving equipment. The critical patients which included newborn infants were left to the mercy of medical trainees as seniors maintained a distance from the wards. Even the trainees spent most of their duty time talking on phones. When the parents approached nurses, they were scolded for no reasons and were even asked to check if drip and oxygen is being supplied to kids smoothly.

Complaints against Meena were many and therefore he was removed at first go, said another employee of the hospital.

Hospital superintendent Suresh Dulara, when asked why no one looked into the dysfunctional life saving equipment in hospital despite Rs 6 crore fund lying unused, said, "I can`t go into the past and quote reasons for why these funds were not used."

He, however, confirmed that irregularities were reported in the hospital due to the lack of coordination between the two seniors. "Yes, there was a lack of coordination between Meena and Bairwa which brought the hospital to the messy condition."

(With IANS inputs)