Baby comes alive 10 hrs after declared dead

Call it a miracle or a medical mystery. A baby declared dead by a doctor returned to the mother’s lap after 10 hours - alive and breathing.

Sangita Das (32), a Howrah resident, gave birth to the "stillborn" male baby at midnight on Sunday at the well known Belle Vue Clinic. It was a premature baby of 25 weeks. Three nurses present during the normal delivery found it was a "stillborn case" as there was no sign of life in him. They then conveyed the sad news to the mother.

But Sangita’s husband Manas Das found the baby breathing when doctors did a last moment examination before releasing the "body" on Tuesday morning. Doctors on duty found signs of life in the newborn and immediately sent him to the Calcutta Medical Research Institute (CMRI) for critical care treatment.

Manas lodged a complaint with the Shakespeare Sarani police station on Tuesday, demanding an inquiry into the negligence of the hospital doctors and nurses. He said no doctor was present during the delivery and that nurses did the job.

Manas said, "The nurses asked my wife to convey the message to me. On Tuesday morning I rushed to the hospital to collect the body. The nurses asked me to arrange for a Hindu Satkar Samiti vehicle to carry the body for cremation. Even the doctor, Gautam Khastagir, informed us around 9.30 am that our baby was dead.”

Khastagir said, "It is a miracle for me and my colleagues. I have never experienced such a case in my 25 years in the profession. The baby was only 800 gm. There was no sign of life like heart-beats, pulse and breathing. That is why the sisters verbally declared him dead. Even the following morning it was stillborn."

Pradip Tandon, CEO of Belle Vue Clinic, said there was no mistake or negligence on the part of doctors and nurses in his clinic. Initially, there was no sign of life in the baby, he said.

City paediatrician Dr Supratik Dutta said there is every possibility of signs of life within a few hours after the birth of a stillborn baby. But he had never heard of such a case as in Belle Vue Clinic.