Autopsy points to respiratory problem

Mohali Civil Surgeon Dr P K Shridhar said though prima facie “nothing incriminating” had been found on part of hospital staffers,the viscera report of the deceased was awaited to establish the exact cause of death.

The post-mortem was conducted by a three-member board of doctors at the Mohali Civil Hospital before the viscera was sent.

“Autopsy showed some cardiovascular and liver ailments,which could be the reasons for the death,” said Dr Shridhar. He said the infant’s mother had said she had taken her child home in an overcrowded autorickshaw after vaccination and that she kept breast feeding the baby on the way. “Since the child was less than a month old,the continuous breast feeding and that too in a moving vehicle,could have caused respiratory problem,” said the civil surgeon,claiming that the deceased’s mother had admitted that the infant was gasping for breath before it died.

Tuling out any problem in the vaccine,Dr Shridhar said almost 200 children were given the same vaccine across the district on Wednesday and none else had reported any complication. “Still,we have sent the vaccine sample to Kasauli for tests,” he said.

State Immunisation Officer Dr Balwinder Singh visited the hospital and began a separate probe into the matter.

Newborn found dead

A day after a 27-day-old baby girl died a couple of hours after vaccination,another newborn baby was found dead in a vacant plot in Deep Nagar residential area here on Thursday. The baby boy was less than 24 hours old. The body was spotted by a woman while dumping garbage in the vacant plot adjoining her house. Ranjit Kaur immediately called her neighbours and informed the local police. SHO Dharampal rushed the newborn to the civil hospital,where the doctor on duty declared him dead on arrival. While samples from the body had been sent for DNA examination,a case has been registered and a hunt launched to identify the accused. The body has been kept in the hospital’s mortuary. Two private nursing homes operating from the vicinity have come under scanner as the police suspect it to be a handiwork of somebody wishing to conceal unwanted birth.