Medical College denies baby swap allegation

Kolkata: The Calcutta Medical College and Hospital (CMCH) authorities have denied the allegation of baby swap brought against the hospital by the family members of a woman who claimed to have given birth to a baby boy on Monday.

After the allegation surfaced, the hospital authorities had formed a committee to probe into the incident. According to the preliminary investigation the committee found that the allegations were completely baseless as no baby boy was born during that period. A woman from Hooghly was admitted to the CMCH after she experienced labour pain. The family members of the patient alleged that the woman had given birth to boy child on Monday afternoon but the baby was swapped with a baby girl due to negligence of a section of hospital staff members.

The family members of the woman lodged a complaint with the hospital superintendent Dr Indranil Biswas on Monday evening saying that the woman was told that she had given birth to a girl child. The swap happened at the labour room, the family members alleged. The complainant also said that the family members were heckled by some doctors when the matter was raised.

After receiving the complaint, the hospital superintendent ordered a probe to look into the matter. After carrying out a thorough investigation, the probing committee found that the woman might have been lying in fear of being scolded by her husband as she already had two daughters. After going through the hospital record, the probing committee found that no baby boy was born during the period as claimed by the family members of the woman. A senior official of the hospital on Tuesday said that allegations appear to be completely baseless as the hospital data did not corroborate the claim. There was no negligence on the part of the hospital staff members.