Assam: Newborn declared dead, found alive in crematorium

A newborn, who was declared dead by doctors at a private hospital here, was later found alive leading to tension in the area, an official said on Thursday.

The newborn’s father Ratan Das claimed that he took his wife to a private hospital on Tuesday evening where doctors said it was a difficult pregnancy and they could save either the mother or the child.

”We allowed them to perform the delivery and they said my wife gave birth to a stillborn. On Wednesday morning, the hospital authorities handed over the child in a packet with a death certificate,” he claimed.

When the family members reached the crematorium to conduct the last rites and opened the packet, the child began to cry.

”We took the baby to the hospital where he is under treatment,” Das said.

The family members, who lodged a complaint against the hospital and a doctor, claimed that hospital staff had kept the newborn inside a packet for more than eight hours, without even properly examining whether he was alive.

Angry residents of Mainabil area of the town gathered outside the hospital and staged a protest on Wednesday.

Hospital authorities said they kept the baby under observation for eight hours before declaring it dead.

”We examined the baby boy several times and it was not responding. We declared the child dead after following all necessary process and then handed him over to the family. There was no wrong intention on our part,” a hospital spokesperson said.