Careless childcare

With a heavy heart, Rokhsana Akter, 21, began making preparations for the funeral of her five-day-old girl, also her first child.

She had brought the baby, wrapped in a shroud, back to Babupur village under Senbagh upazila in Noakhali from Chittagong, where they had gone for the child's treatment.

As the body was unwrapped for the final bath, family members noticed that it a boy.

This was not Rokhsana's daughter.

Rokhsana was appalled and relieved in equal measures. There was a faint chance that her daughter was alive. But there lay another dead baby in front of her. Somewhere,  someone was waiting for their son, without having any idea that he was no more.   

Rokhsana's daughter had been undergoing treatment at the ICU of ChildCare Hospital, a private hospital, in Chittagong for three days. Once the hospital declared the baby dead, the clinic authorities delivered the wrapped body to her around 10:00am on Tuesday.

The authorities allegedly warned the mother and her family members not to unwrap the shroud as the baby's face was in bad shape due to excessive bleeding. 

After the exchange was discovered, they immediately rushed to Chittagong with an ambulance and directly went to Panchlaish Police Station to lodge a complaint late in the night. The on-duty officer allegedly refused to receive the case; however, they started an investigation into the complaint.

Soon, the clinic authorities admitted their mistake and returned the baby girl, who was alive and undergoing treatment at ICU of the clinic, to Rokhsana. But the agonising wait and what they had gone through could not be forgotten.

Even though the girl was returned, the matter has not ended. Questions about police actions and the hospital's intentions are still in the air.

“The second officer of Panchlaish Police Station, who was in-charge at the time, did not believe us at first,” said Alamgir Hossain, a paternal uncle of the baby.

He said they showed all documents that proved their patient was a girl. She had been admitted to Noakhali Ma O Shishu Hospital on Friday as she was suffering from pneumonia but they referred her to Chittagong Medical College Hospital and shifted the baby to ChildCare Hospital at Panchlaish Residential Area in the city on Saturday morning.

 “Since Monday night, the clinic authorities told us that the baby was doing well and they had performed some medical investigations in an adjacent diagnostic centre,” he  said.

Rokhsana Akter watches over her five-day-old girl in an incubator at Royal Hospital in Chittagong. A “mistake” apparently led the staff of ChildCare Hospital, where she was previously admitted, to exchange her for the dead body of a male boy. Upon discovery, the family returned to claim their baby, who was still undergoing treatment at the hospital's ICU. The parents of the boy were then informed that their son had died. Photo: Collected

On Tuesday morning, the authorities said the baby had died and delivered the body wrapped in sheets and asked the family not to unwrap it as seeing the condition could shock them.

“We took the body to our village in Noakhali. During the last bath of the baby, to our utter surprise, we saw the body was that of boy…sensing something fishy, we immediately rushed to Chittagong city and went to file a complaint with Panchlaish Police Station to get back our baby and ensure punishment of those responsible.

“My brother, father of the baby, is an expatriate in Dubai, I informed him about everything over phone; he then contacted some media personnel over phone…then police started investigation.”

While the clinic authorities apologised for their “mistake”, family members believe it was deliberate.

 Alamgir alleged that the police official even asked them why they were so bothered after getting back their baby. “If you want to go to the media, you may. I want to see what they can do,” he allegedly also said.

Contacted, Mohiuddin Mahmud, officer-in-charge of Panchlaish Police Station, dismissed the allegations.

 “On complaint, we started an investigation and came to know that the baby was mistakenly exchanged with another as both were admitted at almost the same time,” he said.

He also said that primarily, they decided to go for a DNA test with permission from the court but the parents of the baby boy [who was exchanged with the girl] admitted that theirs' was a boy and the clinic authorities also confirmed that it was a mistake.

 Responding to a questioning about giving threats, said there was no incident of giving threat. “Why will threaten them when we worked the whole night to solve the matter?” the OC said, adding they would register a case if the family filed one.

Fahim Hasan Reza, managing director of ChildCare Hospital, also said it was a mistake.

“Both the babies came from Noakhali district and somehow there was a mistake. We apologise for the mistake and have formed a three-member committee to investigate the matter.”

He said punitive action would be taken against those responsible and preventive measures would also be taken for the future.

Although both the police and hospital authorities claimed it was a mistake, this correspondent found that the clinic had apparently first registered Rokhsana's baby as a female but then altered it to male.

It also came to light that the baby girl was in bed 17 while the boy was in bed 9 in the ICU of the clinic. Asked, how 9 could be mistaken for 17, the MD of the clinic could not say anything.

The Daily Star correspondent contacted Md Mohiuddin, father of the baby boy, by phone.

He was also in shock. Around a few years ago, his twin boys had drowned. While he now has two daughters, he was looking forward to having a son again.

“We knew our baby was well till 11:00pm on Tuesday but later the clinic authorities told us that there was a mistake and our baby died and the body was mistakenly handed over to another family,” he said.

“The news came to me as a bolt from the blue…I could not believe it at first; later, I saw the body and identified it,” he said, adding, “I cannot express how bad I feel.”

He then hung up, unable to talk further.

Contacted, Chittagong Civil Surgeon Azizur Rahaman Siddique said they heard about the matter and would form a probe body today to investigate it.

The ChildCare Hospital authorities organised a press conference at Chittagong Press Club in the evening where they too announced a probe into the incident.

While visiting Royal Hospital, where the baby is now undergoing treatment, Rokhsana was found sleeping in a cabin. She looked      drained but there was a trace of contentment in her face. All of a sudden she opened her eyes to attend a phone call.

She said that she wanted punishment of the perpetrators.