TUHIN SHUBHRA ADHIKARY

Shortcomings in management and ventilation in the post-operative room of Ad-din Medical College Hospital may have contributed to the deaths of six newborns last Wednesday, health officials and the families of the victims said.

The post-operative room, where two babies died and four others’ conditions deteriorated before they ultimately died, lacked any alternative ventilation system besides air conditioners. Apparent management deficiencies also raised concerns, health officials said after visiting the hospital several times in recent days.

They further said the 700-bed private hospital has infrastructural weaknesses in several areas, including narrow corridors and poor ventilation, creating a suffocating environment and increasing its vulnerability to fire and other disasters.

The issues came to light as a government probe committee continued investigating the unusual deaths of six newborns, aged between one and four days.

The committee, led by a joint secretary of the health ministry, has almost completed its investigation but decided to interview the victims’ families to verify its findings, as no post-mortem examinations or inquest reports were conducted.

Committee members yesterday recorded the statement of the mother of twin babies in Dhaka and were on their way to Keraniganj to meet another victim’s family around 4:30pm, said Md Mohsin, head of the probe committee.

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