Death of four babies at hospital in Maha: Nurse held

Mumbai: Police today arrested a 30-year-old nurse working at a hospital in Maharashtra’s Amravati on the charge of negligence following the deaths of four infants.

The nurse – Vidya Thorat – was apprehended this morning after a doctor Bhushan Katta, working in the same hospital, was held yesterday, on the same charge, a senior police official said.

Katta and Thorat, who were on duty at the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) of Punjabrao Deshmukh Medical College Hospital, were booked on the charge of negligent act not amounting to culpable homicide.

The medical college and the hospital are run by Shri Shivaji Education Society.

Four premature babies, born last week and kept in incubators in the NICU of the hospital, died in the early hours on Monday.

The official said Thorat gave wrong injection to the babies.

“As per preliminary report it is found that Thorat had given Potassium Chloride, which proved fatal to the infants”, he added.

According to the official, the post mortem report is yet to come.

Local MLA Ravi Rana had demanded a compensation of Rs 25 lakh for the kin of each victim.

Divisional commissioner J P Guta had told PTI that he would submit a report to the state government about the alleged irregularities and lapses by the hospital management.