Newborn Baby Is Bitten To Death By Rats After Being Admitted To Indian Hospital For Lung Problems
On Tuesday, a newborn baby boy in India reportedly died from injuries he sustained after rats got into his incubator and chewed away at the fingers on his right hand, his legs, and left eye. A committee has now been set up to probe into the exact causes behind the gruesome death.
The baby boy, born Aug. 17 at the Government General Hospital in the state of Andhra Pradesh, Southeast India, was transferred to an incubator in the neonatal surgical ward soon after his birth to be treated for a lung problem, The Indian Telegraph reported. Although the parents were not allowed near their child, they soon noticed that something was wrong.
"Early on Sunday morning, my son started crying. As we are not allowed to stand next to the incubator, I urged the nurses to check on him," the child’s mother, who was referred to as Lakshimi, told The Telegraph. "By the time they did, rats had eaten away the fingers of his right hand and also the eye."
Upon discovering the horrific injuries, the child was quickly taken to the Intensive Care Unit, but unfortunately the boy was declared dead on Tuesday. The parents had previously complained about a rat problem in the vicinity of their child and Dr. Venugopala Rao, the hospital’s superintendent, told The Hindu that he had asked the building's engineers to address the problem. “The presence of rodents had come to our notice on Monday morning, and I asked the engineering wing to carry out repairs to the false ceiling,” Rao said, “but unfortunately this morning, the rodents attacked the newborn again.”
According to the child’s father, upon learning of the death of his newborn a hospital attendant told the grieving father he “need not to worry as [he has] another son.”