Nine days after two newborn infants were mixed up at the Government Maternity Hospital in Sultanbazaar in Hyderabad, DNA tests have revealed who the babies belong to.
On the afternoon of August 23, Ranjitha from Mahbubnagar and P Rama Devi from Rangareddy district gave birth in two different wards. They had both undergone a caesarean. While one male and one female infant were born, both the mothers were told that they had given birth to a boy, and shown the male infant. With both sets of parents insisting that the male infant was their child, DNA tests were ordered on both infants and parents.
Telugu news channel TV9 reported, on Thursday, that DNA tests revealed that the baby girl’s DNA matched with Ranjitha’s and the baby boy’s with Rama.
Hyderabad police had to wait for more than a week to conduct the DNA tests as the FSL laboratory was located 8km away from the hospital in Red Hills. The mothers could not be moved out of the hospital until the stitches healed.
The DNA test was conducted on August 30.
According to a TNIE report, after the deliveries, a staff of the hospital informed Ranjitha's family that she had given birth to a boy. The baby boy’s wrist had a tag with her name written in English. However, the staff later took the baby away saying there was a confusion.
The same happened with Rama. However, upon seeing the tag with her name around the baby boy’s hand, she breastfed the infant. Meanwhile, the girl child was allegedly not fed by either mother.
However, the babies were placed under the care of the hospital after a complaint of negligence was filed.