Injection by tout kills 8-month-old

In an incident that reflects the pathetic state of healthcare in Uttar Pradesh, an eight-month-old boy admitted to a district hospital in Ballia district died after a tout allegedly gave him two injections.

Additional district magistrate KP Singh has been ordered to probe the incident.

The infant was admitted to the emergency ward on Tuesday with a severe case of septicemia and the on-call doctor had prescribed an injection.

While the medicine was being procured by the grandmother of the child, a tout walked into the ward and administered an injection to the infant. When the grandmother came back with the medicine, he gave the child that injection too.

Within half-hour the infant had died and the tout had fled.

"The child was seriously ill and was referred to Varanasi. However, his mother had expressed her helplessness to carry the child that far for treatment," chief medical superintendent Dr PK Singh said. He also agreed to the presence of touts in the hospital.

At the time of incident, Dr Vinod Kumar and pharmacist Srikant were on duty.

"Several attempts have been made to ban the entry of touts in the hospital, but to no avail. I have requested the district administration to help us in restricting their entry," he said.

In July last year, a sweeper was caught on camera attending to patients in the emergency ward of the same hospital.