Had there been a night shift doctor at the emergency ward of the Hetauda Hospital, the baby might have survived.
When the five-day-old baby of Kailmaya Thokar from Kharanga village of Manhari VDC was brought to the hospital at around 10:30 PM on Tuesday by her neighbors, the “on call” doctor, Dhananjaya Singh, was working in a private clinic of Makwanpur Corporative Hospital.
A team led by Chief District Officer Ek Narayan Aryal, which had reached the hospital on inspection later in the night, had ordered, officiating head of the hospital, Hari Bahadur Khadka, to treat the baby immediately.[break]
The CDO´s team had left after the child, who had been unconscious after contracting meningitis, regained consciousness. The CDO had also pledged all the medical expenses of the child and sent a police van to fetch the child´s mother.
Khadka, who is a pediatrician, had started the treatment at around 1 AM, the child breathed his last later in the morning.
“We tried our best but could not save the child. Things would have been certainly different if the treatment was started much earlier,” said Dr Khadka.
It may be noted here that the CDO´s team had gone to the Hetauda Cooperative Hospital later in the night and had found Dr Singh there. Dr Singh, who is working at the Cooperative Hospital for the past 6 months, had told the CDO that he come to the hospital only to sleep.
“It is a height of negligence that a child has died because there was no doctor on duty at the emergency department of the hospital. The doctor who was supposed to be on duty will face departmental action,” CDO Aryal reacting to the tragedy.
The District Administration Office has already written to the District Health Office to initiate action against Dr Singh.
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