‘We’re blessed. We have no complaint’

With her ‘dead’ baby girl bouncing back to life, mother says she doesn’t want anyone punished

Aruna Gaikwad, 30, was so happy that she was ready to forgive everyone - even the “negligent” resident doctor of Sion Hospital, who had pronounced her baby daughter dead.

All she wanted was to have a glimpse of her daughter, who bounced back to life miraculously just minutes before she was about to be buried.

Speaking from her hospital bed in Ward No. 31, Gaikwad, a Karjat resident, said she did not have any complaint against anyone. “We are happy to be blessed with a child years after our marriage,” she said in a feeble voice. “I am happy to have her back.”

Bhagwan, the new-born’s father, works as a labourer. He told DNA that he was too poor to afford the mother and child’s treatment anywhere else. “Whatever happened was a mistake. We have forgiven them as the hospital is treating them well,” he said. 

The baby girl was mistakenly declared dead hours after her birth on Monday evening by resident doctor Dr Asma Ahmed. But during cremation, the baby started bawling after relatives sprinkled water on her face as part of the last rites.

The hospital maintained that the baby had no heart beat and made no movement that would have indicated she was alive.

“For four to five hours, she showed no trace of life,” said a resident doctor on condition of anonymity. “We are still not sure whether to call it medical negligence or a miracle.”

However, BMC was in no doubt that it was a case of negligence, and suspended Dr Ahmed on Thursday. “It was a case of gross negligence on the part of the doctor, who was a trainee,” said Kishore Gajbhiye, additional municipal commissioner, BMC. He added that Ahmed had been served a showcause notice.

According to Gajbhiye, Ahmed should have consulted the senior doctors on duty before declaring the baby dead and issuing the certificate. “Experts have pointed out that though the child had no fetal heart beat, other ways to ascertain her condition were not tried,” he said.

The baby is still battling for life at the neo-natal intensive care unit (NICU) of Sion Hospital. “The baby is critical, and has been put on ventilator,” said Dr Jayashree Mondkar, professor and head of neo-natology. “Her heartbeat is fine. A sonography of the brain has shown that there is no bleeding.”

But she stopped short of saying that the baby was out of danger.