3-day-old tested positive for coronavirus, got infected from hospital bed
As coronavirus cases across India continued to surge, a shocking incident has come to fore from Mumbai. A three-day-old baby boy has tested positive for coronavirus along with his mother, reports said. It is believed that the duo contracted the infection from a bed at Sai Hospital, which a COVID-19 patient occupied before them. The father wants the government to "save his family".
The baby was delivered on March 26
According to Indian Express, the child was born at the hospital on March 26. The mother and the child were shifted to Kurla Bhabha Hospital and later to Kasturba Hospital, the nodal center for coronavirus cases in Mumbai. The child was born healthy. The father said his wife had no symptoms before getting admitted and stayed at home because of the nationwide lockdown.
The father took all the possible precautions
Concerned about coronavirus, the father, who works as a manager at a restaurant, booked an entire twin-sharing room at the Chembur-based nursing home. Merely two hours after the delivery, the mother was asked to shift to another room. "They did not tell us why. The next day, a doctor called and asked us to get tested for the virus," the 32-year-old said.
The hospital was shut by BMC this week
On March 27, the couple gave nasal swabs for tests at a private lab. But since then no one attended to the newborn or the mother, the father claimed. Three days later, BMC ordered to shut the hospital. Thereafter, the woman and her son were shifted to Kurla Bhabha Hospital and later to Kasturba Hospital. The family is being treated there.
The father alleged nursing home threw the family out
The distressed father told NDTV that nursing home exploited him. "I spent Rs. 13,500 from my pocket to test my wife, my child and myself. I told the doctors we could not leave until the results came back. They forced me to leave, saying the hospital was closing. They took more money from me to settle the bill and threw us out," he said.
Hospitals should disinfect beds after patient is discharged
The father claimed the hospital didn't inform him that a COVID-19 patient occupied the bed previously. Notably, Dr. Tanu Singhal, pediatric expert at Kokilaben Dhirubhai Ambani Hospital, didn't rubbish this theory either. "The standard protocol is to disinfect a bed after it is vacated by a patient. This protocol, called terminal cleaning, is not just for coronavirus, this should be followed always," she said.
Father made an impassioned appeal to Modi, Thackeray
Slamming the hospital staff's negligence, he said no one should go through such an ordeal. "Now I just want my child to get good treatment and I am begging Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray to please look after my child," he purportedly said in a video, while breaking down. To note, there are 280 COVID-19 positive cases in Maharashtra.
