Farrukhabad DM, CMO removed after 49 children die in Uttar Pradesh

The Uttar Pradesh government on Monday transferred the Farrukhabad district magistrate as well as the chief medical officer and the chief medical superintendent of the district hospital after the deaths of 49 children in one month.

The hospital recorded 49 deaths -- 30 in neo-natal ICU and 19 during delivery -- between July 20 and August 21, an official spokesperson said in Lucknow.

"A high-level team will be sent to Farrukhabad to probe the the deaths and its technical aspects will also be taken care of. Taking note of the incident, the DM, the CMO and the CMS (women's hospital) have been removed," he said.

He added that 468 deliveries took place in the women's wing of the hospital during the period. Of these, 19 were stillbirths.

An FIR in the matter was registered at city police last night in Farrukhabad, about 180 km from the state capital, against the CMO and the CMS.

Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath's office took prompt notice of the matter after local news channels reported the death of 49 children in the hospital and directed District Magistrate Ravindra Kumar to conduct a probe, officials said.

City Magistrate Jaynendra Kumar Jain and SDM Ajit Kumar Singh said the probe found that 30 deaths were due to lack of oxygen. They also mentioned in their report that the CMO and the CMS did not cooperate and did not give a correct report.

"During the period, 30 children died mostly due to perinatal asphyxia (a condition in which a child doesnot breathe normally just before, during, or after birth). During probe, the parents informed that there was delay in providing oxygen and medicine due to which the children died due to lack of adquate supply of oxygen," Jain said in the report.

However, it had no mention of the remaining 19 deaths.

The deaths of children in the Farrukhabad hospital come after at least 30 children died in a state-run hospital in Gorakhpur on August 10-11 amid allegations of oxygen shortage, a charge denied by the state government.