Infants death; Babies died due to natural causes says TN CM O Paneerselvam

Chennai: Chief Minister O. Panneerselvam on Tuesday clarified that the death of 11 newborns at the Dharmapuri government hospital between November 14 and 18 was “due to natural causes and not due to any medical negligence.”

Pointing out that infant mortality rate (IMR) in Tamil Nadu is 21 per 1,000 births compared to the nation’s average of 40, the CM said IMR at Dharmapuri was only 19 and that 77 per cent of deliveries were in government hospitals.

After the death of five newborns on November 14 in the neonatal intensive care unit of Dharmapuri GH, specialist Dr S. Srinivasan was immediately asked to probe the incident. He ruled out any medical negligence.

“Director of medical education Dr Geethalakshmi along with a team of neonatologists — Dr Narayanaswamy, Dr Srinivasan and Dr Kumudha, are monitoring the situation. At present, 73 newborns are undergoing treatment at the hospital,” Mr Panneerselvam said in a statement here.

After reviewing the deaths of newborns with officials of the health department, the CM said that of the 11 newborns, seven infants were premature babies and weighed below 2 kg.

Eight newborns were delivered in other hospitals and were admitted to Dharmapuri government hospital for further treatment.

The reasons for the 11 deaths were attributed to low birth weight, short intervals between pregnancies and young age of mothers.

Explaining that the government has initiated various measures for welfare of prenatal and newborns, he said health officials had been instructed to take focus on underweight pregnant women.

Health secretary Dr. J. Radhakrishnan said specialists sent to monitor the situation clarified that it was not a case of lack of medicines.

“We are looking at the larger problem of nutrition, and tracking of haemoglobin levels in pregnant women. Our short-term goal is to control mortality rate in the infant ward and the larger goal is to look at the nutritional levels and other prenatal health care,” he said.  

“We will also find out why pregnant women are not making use of the various facilities provided by the government. We are looking at various PHCs to evolve better systems and find out whether they are retaining high-risk mothers,” he added.

Opposition parties DMDK and PMK have urged the state government to take immediate steps to prevent death of babies.

Leader of Opposition and DMDK president Vijayakanth asked the state government to take full responsibility for the death of babies in Dharmapuri hospital.

“Different reasons are being given by the government over the deaths. One of the reasons given is low birth weight which public refuses to believe,” he said, pointing to the state government’s propaganda that free nutritious food was given to pregnant women.

Mr Vijayakanth said the tragedy only shows that adequate nutritious food was not being given to the pregnant women and also urged the state health minister to visit the hospital to prevent death of infants.

PMK founder Dr S. Ramadoss said that medical experts were pointing towards wide prevalence of nutritious deficiency among women in the state as reason for birth of low weight babies and death of infants.

“At least after the Dharmapuri tragedy, the state government should come out with scheme to improve nutrition among women,” he said.