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# India

‘Dead’ newborn comes alive seconds before cremation in Silchar, Assam

The family has filed an FIR against the hospital authorities and a doctor for negligence. The hospital authorities claimed that the baby was kept under observation for 8 hours before the infant’s death was declared

SNS | New Delhi | October 5, 2023 6:27 pm

‘Dead’ newborn comes alive seconds before cremation in Silchar, Assam

representational image [Photo : iStock]

A newborn baby, who had been declared dead by doctors at a private hospital in Silchar, Assam, was miraculously revived just before being cremated on Wednesday morning. Ratan Das, the baby’s father, said that he had taken his six-month-old pregnant wife to the hospital on Tuesday evening, where doctors informed him that complications in the pregnancy meant that they could only save the mother or the baby. “I let them do the delivery and they told me that my wife had delivered a stillborn baby,” Das said. “We received the dead body on Wednesday morning.”

After receiving the body, he packed it in a packet and took it to a crematorium in Silchar. When the packet was opened before the final rites, the child started crying, and we rushed him back to the private hospital, where he is currently receiving treatment, said Das. A group of locals from Silchar’s Malinibil locality staged a protest outside the private hospital against the hospital’s mismanagement.

In the meantime, the family has filed an FIR against the hospital authorities and a doctor for negligence. The hospital authorities claimed that the baby was kept under observation for 8 hours before the infant’s death was declared. Clarifying the hospital’s stand, the hospital spokesperson said, “We examined the baby boy several times and he was not responding. We declared the child dead after following the necessary process and then handed him over to the family. There was no wrong intention on our part.”

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In a similar case in February, a premature baby was born at Delhi government’s Lok Nayak hospital. The hospital authorities declared the baby dead. However, as the baby’s family was getting ready to bury her, she was found alive.  In a similar fashion as in Assam, the hospital authorities had said the baby was stillborn. The body was wrapped in a cloth, placed in a cardboard box, and handed over to the family for rituals.

 

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