New Born Declared Dead Comes to Life Just Before Funeral

In a repetition of several such incidents where the patients are declared dead without proper checks, a hospital in Warangal, Telangana declared a four-day-old baby dead on Sunday but when she started moving at the cremation grounds, parents realised the faux pas but in vain.

The baby delivered at a private hospital weighed just 450 grams and was brought to MGM hospital in Warangal for neonatal intensive care unit, which has ventilator and oxygen facilities.
On Sunday morning at 11.30 am, the doctor on duty declared the baby dead and issued a death certificate too when parents decided to take the body to the cremation ground for the final rites.

When they found the baby moving, they rushed back to the same hospital where doctors again declared the baby dead, causing commotion and outrage among the relatives for their negligence in declaring the baby dead in the first instance and thus denying proper care. The parents said the doctors failed to properly check the ECG to determine the baby’s condition before declaring the baby dead.

Two weeks ago, in Delhi Safdarjung Hospital too a newborn, weighing around 460 gm was not revived after an abortion citing international norm but the baby was found alive later. Doctors who said, “It was technically an abortion because the delivery took place in the 20th week of pregnancy. Internationally, the norm says such children should not be revived,” failed to explain how they missed that the child was still breathing.

I could have buried my child if he hadn’t started kicking from inside the plastic packet,” said the father who had filed a complaint of negligence with the police.