A disturbing case of medical negligence has come to light in Pakistan, where hospital authorities have been accused of replacing a dead baby girl with a boy. Dawn According to the report, the parents brought their four-day-old sick child to the Children’s Hospital in Lahore when he fell ill. During treatment, the doctors at the hospital declared the boy dead and handed over the body to his father. But when the father took the body to his hometown Gujranwala for burial, he was shocked to see that it was a girl. He immediately returned to the hospital with the girl’s body and claimed that they had brought their child for treatment.
According to DawnAn investigation has been launched into the incident. After learning about the shocking allegations, hospital authorities began investigating the matter. Later, the hospital authorities found out that the child had allegedly “disappeared”, the official said.
In his formal complaint, the father gave a detailed account of the incident and accused the hospital of replacing the body of the deceased girl with that of his son. He urged the police to register a case of crime against the hospital management and the doctors concerned and demanded the recovery of his son.
Pakistan’s Punjab Health Department immediately responded to the incident by forming an investigation committee of three senior doctors from the Children’s Hospital. According to the outlet, the team was tasked with conducting a thorough investigation and submitting a detailed report to uncover the truth.
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In its findings, the committee said the investigating officers questioned all the concerned staff, including doctors, nurses and paramedics present at the neonatal unit where the baby was treated. They also examined footage from CCTV cameras.
During its investigation, the hospital management claimed that the parents themselves had taken the baby away from the hospital against medical advice, without clarifying the issue of “exchange” of the baby. The report also states that the newborn’s condition became critical despite all possible treatment, and doctors shifted him to the high-dependency unit to put him on ventilator support. However, the report states that the patient’s parents refused to undergo further treatment and left the hospital with the baby after signing the discharge form against medical advice.
The report did not address the issue of alleged swapping of babies. Meanwhile, the police have registered an FIR based on a complaint by the hospital staff about the alleged swapping of the baby boy with the dead baby girl. Investigations are underway.
