BANKE, Sept 13: Hours after Bheri Hospital declared a newborn dead, the baby was found to be alive by family members just before performing final rites in Nepalgunj on Friday morning.
Kamala Adhikari, a Cheragaad Municipality-09, Jajarkot resident, gave birth to a premature baby early morning today. After a few hours, duty in-charge at the labor ward Basundhara Gyawali told the parents that their premature baby did not survive.
‘Dead’ baby found alive right before burial
Milan Adhikari, Kamala's husband, received the body after signing the documents as asked by the hospital administration. The hospital staffers also asked to pay Rs 2000 to bury the dead body.
But the family members refused to pay the amount and headed to a cemetery in Bulbuliya, Nepalgunj. After digging a hole to bury the body, Kalawati Nepali, an employee at the cemetery, asked Adhikari to handover the deceased. That was when Kalawati noticed that the baby was breathing. The parents burst into tears and rushed their baby to Bheri Hospital.
The newborn is undergoing treatment at the hospital. Kalawati said she had experienced similar incidents in the past. “This was not the first case that the baby was found to be alive when I was about to bury in the same yard," she said.
Information Officer Dr. Sanket Risal at Bheri Hospital said that the hospital administration is well aware of the incident. "We are now investigating the case," he said. Head of the nursing department at the hospital, Durga Shrestha, however, defended the staff nurses on-duty.
"The nurses should not be blamed in this incident," she said. "The baby was born in 23 weeks, weighing just 600 grams. It's really difficult for us to save such prematurely born babies," she said.
