Negligent hospital staff and a case of alleged baby swap between a boy and a girl, has led to a 6-day-old baby girl being abandoned in Karnataka’s Kalaburgi district.
The baby girl is now in the Kalaburgi District Hospital, waiting for her family to claim her. However, the nursing mothers, who were victims of the baby swap, are now fighting over the baby boy.
According to Kalaburgi district SP, Shashikumar, two women – Nandamma from Konasirasagi village and Nazma Begum of Kadamgera village in Yadgiri district, were admitted to the Kalaburgi District Hospital on December 14.
“According to hospital records, both Nandamma and Nazma delivered their babies around the same time. Upon visiting the hospital, the staff admitted that they had made a mistake and had swapped Nandamma and Nazma’s babies,” the SP said.
Speaking to TNM, 58-year-old Siddappa, Nandamma’s husband, who is a Mathematics teacher at the Malli village middle school, said that after the Caesarean procedure was performed, the nurse brought in a baby boy and assured him that his wife was stable.
“She told us that we had a baby boy. Just 10 minutes after she gave us the good news, she came in and said that the baby boy was not ours and that my wife had actually given birth to a baby girl. We had told all our relatives that we had a boy and now my wife is refusing to accept the girl. My family is also refusing to,” Siddappa said.
According to SP Shashikumar, Nandamma has refused to breastfeed the child and has demanded that a DNA test be conducted.
On Tuesday, SP Shashikumar intervened and visited the hospital to probe the matter. The hospital authorities, in a bid to convince Nandamma and Siddappa that they had a baby girl, also tested blood samples of the babies and the parents.
According to district surgeon Dr BN Joshi, the tests revealed that the blood group of the male child was B+, which matched Nazma Begum and Lal Mohammed’s. The blood group of the baby girl was A+, which matched that of Nandamma and Siddappa. But Nandamma and her family were not willing to accept the child.
“Even the SP is saying that the blood test proves that the girl is ours. We wanted a boy and we got it until the hospital staff took him away. We have demanded that a DNA test be conducted,” Siddappa added.
On Tuesday evening, Kalaburagi SP Shashikumar held a meeting with Dr Joshi and the parents.
“I tried to convince Siddappa to take the baby girl and look after her for a few days till the DNA report is received and to ask his wife to breastfeed the baby,” the SP said.
However, Siddappa and Nandamma refused to do so and the baby girl is currently in the district hospital’s ICU.
Siddappa has also filed a complaint with the police regarding his suspicion on the baby swap.
On Wednesday, the hospital collected blood samples of both the babies and the parents, which have been sent for DNA testing.