SUKKUR: Three more newborns died allegedly because of shortage of oxygen and doctors and paramedics’ negligence at Sukkur Civil Hospital on Saturday, raising the death toll of children in a month to 10 at the government healthcare facility.

The Sindh government as well as district and session judge took notice of the incident after it was aired on news channels and sought detailed report from the hospital administration.

The victims’ relatives who held a demonstration against the hospital told reporters that the children died due to unavailability of oxygen and held doctors, paramedics and the hospital administration responsible of the deaths.

Medical Superintendent Dr Abdul Aziz Thebo said the children did not die because of unavailability of oxygen. The newborns were brought in critical condition and if they died at the hospital it was no fault of the administration, doctors and paramedics, he said.

He said that all relatives of newborns wanted to have their children kept in incubators but the hospital had limited number of incubators which could not accommodate all the children at a time.

The victim’s relatives complained paramedics did not monitor incubators responsibly and never bothered to physically and check children in incubators. The babies died because of negligence by doctors and paramedics, they alleged.

The district and session judge Amjad Bhayo sought a detailed report from the hospital’s medical superintendent about the newborns death and patients’ complaints.

Published in Dawn, October 1st, 2018