Bangladesh: 6 newborn babies dead after AC gas leak at Dhaka hospital

At least six newborn children died in a single ward of the Ad-Din Hospital in Dhaka’s Moghbazar in Bangladesh due to a major gas leak in the air conditioning.

The incident took place on Tuesday, May 26, while Sheikh Jahidul Islam, deputy police commissioner of Ramna Division at DMP, informed that people have launched an investigation into the matter.

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During initial investigation, it was informed that the gas leaked due to a fault in the AC system in a ward of the hospital. Due to this, the condition of the children undergoing treatment deteriorated.

The grandmother of one of the children said that the doctors at the hospital should have informed them in advance to shift their child to another facility if they were unable to handle the situation. She further alleged that the hospital authorities informed that her granddaughter was shifted to the ICU and added that she ultimately spent a large amount of money for her treatment. After waiting for several hours, she later got to know that the girl was no longer alive.

Further, people have complained that there were minimal number of doctors and nurses in the ward at night to look after the patients. It has been claimed that the children were left crying all night and were falling ill one after another.

A woman, who lost her child in the incident, claimed that almost all the children were crying and vomiting at night, while none of the hospital authorities were able to understand what exactly happened to them.

The mother said that as her son’s condition started deteriorating in the morning, he was taken to the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). Initially, the doctors told her that everything will be fine, but later they reported that the child had passed away.

Sharing details regarding the matter, the hospital’s director Dr Nahida Yeasmin said that in total 11 mothers and six children were present in the post-delivery ward. At first, two children fell ill and were taken to the NICU.

Later on, they were brought back to the ward. At around 6 a.m., they fell ill again and were taken to the NICU and put on ventilator.

DMP Commissioner Mosleh Uddin Ahmed said that the mother of a newborn bady had earlier requested the hospital staff to turn off the AC as she was not feeling comfortable. The AC was turned off for about an hour and then switched on again due to hot weather.