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| Girl's burn incident in hospital: 'When the bandages were removed, the legs were completely burnt' |
"When my wife and I made a lot of noise, they gave the baby to us, but at that time both her legs were bandaged."
The case is of a four-day-old baby girl with burns on both her feet and her parents claim that her feet were 'burnt in the incubator'.
The baby girl was born on July 3 in a private hospital in Islamabad.
Speaking to the BBC, the girl's father, Ahsan, claimed that both her feet were fine when the girl was born. But the doctors asked to keep the girl in the incubator, saying that she was losing weight.
He claimed that 'the next day when I went to pick up the baby girl, the police said that the baby girl is allergic so we cannot give her, they refused to give her to us.'
When they finally got their daughter back, they saw the bandages on her legs and the ground gave out from under their feet.
Every day in Pakistan, one hears news that newborn babies have been killed or injured due to malfunctions in the incubators when the temperature is too high and the incubators catch fire.
Sometimes the case is suppressed after the news comes on the media, then the case is dismissed by forming a Khabi inquiry committee. In May this year, one child died and two children were injured due to high temperature in the incubators in Lahore's Children's Hospital.
Similarly, in 2014, eight babies died due to malfunctioning incubators.
Mother 'fainted several times due to trauma'
The girl's mother took her to another hospital to get the girl treated. There, when the doctors removed the bandages from the girl's legs, she was completely burnt.
Doctors told them that their daughter had suffered third-degree burns.
Seeing the feet of the two-day-old girl, the hospital staff asked the parents to report the incident to the police and take the girl to Pims.
The girl's father said, "My first daughter died after six months of illness, the second child was miscarried and two years later, the third daughter was born."
After losing two children, the saint now has to bear the pain of a third daughter.
She has fainted several times due to the sacred shock of seeing the feet of a few days-old daughter.
When the BBC team arrived to meet Pims parents, the girl's mother was not in a condition to talk, so the girl's father and aunt said that after seeing the girl's feet, they asked the hospital when the girl was born. How did the girl's feet get burnt the next day?
The police on duty told us that the girl's feet were burnt due to the bursting of the bulb in the incubator. But does the bursting of the bulb in the incubator only burn the legs?
The girl was not in the incubator when the incident took place.
According to the girl's parents, her daughter's legs have been burnt due to the fault of the hospital administration. After which he requested to lodge an FR against the hospital.
When the BBC tried to know her position by talking to Dr. Madiha of this private hospital, who was among the people who reached the spot after the accident, she said, "When the accident happened to the girl, she At the time she was not in the incubator. She was in trouble. Due to frequent lightning strikes, the blip on top of the girl exploded, causing the sheet she was in to catch fire.
He said that the flame fell on the girl's legs due to which her left foot was burnt. Whenever someone gets burnt, it is not immediately possible to tell what degree the burns are, we also initially thought it was a second-degree burn.
Dakar Madiha also dismissed the stand of the parents as wrong and said that they had told the parents that the girl's feet had been burnt.
"We didn't tell them initially because we wanted them to sit down and tell us what happened to the girl, but they didn't listen to us." When I made the discharge paper, I wrote heat burn on it.
After this news went viral in the media, the health department of Islamabad sealed the NICU and operation theater of the said hospital, while the police also obtained the CCTV footage of the incident from the hospital.
Dakkar Madiha said that they have provided all the evidence to the police, including burning will sheets, and pieces of bulbs.
The police have assured the girl's parents of taking action against the hospital administration and the negligent doctors.
While talking about the condition of the girl in NIUC, Pems, child specialist Mohammad Tariq told BBC that the girl's legs have been severely burnt. Cuts have been made on her legs to allow fluid to come out and the girl has also developed sepsis (infection).
This procedure is initially done to save the girl's legs from being cut, as the nerves of the leg have also been burnt. Now the girl's oxygen has also decreased and her legs have also started turning blue.
Why are newborns kept in incubators?
After this incident, many people kept questioning why a baby is kept in an incubator if it is born normal.
We often hear that the baby is in an incubator, or that the baby will be in an incubator for a few days.
According to Dakar Tariq, a normal baby is initially kept in the incubator for two to three hours to ensure that all the baby's organs are functioning and the baby is fine.
An incubator is a machine that keeps a baby at a specific temperature. If a baby is born in the seventh month, the pre-mature baby is kept at a temperature of 32 degrees Celsius so that its organs can be fully formed. At a lower temperature, the child's brain stops working.
Dakar Tariq says that apart from this when a child gets an infection or any kind of disease is suspected, then the child is kept in an incubator.
Can babies burn due to high temperatures in the incubator? Answering this question, Dakar Tariq said that the maximum temperature in the incubator is up to 40 degrees Celsius.
"The baby cannot burn in the temperature of the incubator. When any baby is placed in the incubator, the alarm in the incubator starts ringing if the temperature is higher than the set temperature."
Dakar Tariq also clarified that a short circuit, or any other malfunction, could cause the incubator to catch fire.