Stray dog feeds on dead infant in Hosur government hospital

KRISHNAGIRI: A stray dog that entered the Hosur government hospital were shockingly found feeding on the corpse of a newborn infant which according to its relatives was thrown into the garbage bin by the hospital staff.

Sources said, M. Nagamma of Karnoor village, near Hosur of Krishnagiri gave birth to a male baby here in the Hosur GH on Wednesday evening.

The newborn infant, which recorded low birth weight of less than one kilo was kept in the “neo-natal intensive care unit”. The baby died on Wednesday night and it was handed over to its biological mother in the maternal ward.

The relatives had the dead baby in the hospital ward with a plan to transport it the next day because they could not carry the corpse at the night.

Later, the infant’s relative allegedly packed the infant's body in a plastic bag and kept it in the hospital toilet facility after other patients objected to keeping the corpse of the newborn in the hospital ward.

The hospital staff, when asked about the missing baby, told the relatives that the bag with the infant’s body might have been thrown in the garbage bin by the sanitary workers.

Meanwhile, people who went to the isolated place in the hospital premises, found a stray dog mauling the body of the newborn and informed the hospital staffs.
The hospital staff went to that spot, recovered the body and kept it in the Hosur hospital mortuary for autopsy procedure. The dog had nibbled away a major portion of the body’s face, legs and hands.

S. Boopathy, medical officer of Hosur GH, termed the death of the baby as ‘intrauterine death’.

The baby was handed over to its relatives after completing the official procedure.

It was suspected that the relatives might have abandoned the baby in the hospital premises which was later fed by the stray dog. A police complaint has been filed and only a full investigation can bring out the truth, he said.