Newborn disappears from DMCH again

A two-day-old child was reportedly stolen yesterday from the neonatal ward of Dhaka Medical College Hospital (DMCH), the second newborn to be stolen from the hospital since March.

It is reported that a woman carried the infant out of the hospital in broad daylight, in plain view of law enforcement personnel and under the noses of closed-circuit camera staff. The child’s father alleged that the theft took place with the collusion of hospital authorities.

The grief-stricken 27 year old mother has been crying inconsolably since her little boy was allegedly stolen from the ward. Luna Begum, wife of security guard Kawsar Hossain Babu, is losing hope of recovering her son.

At least five children have been stolen from DMCH wards in the last three years. Not one child has ever been recovered.

Hospital authorities have formed probe bodies, increased security and set up CCTVs to clamp down on the crime but they have not been successful.

The mother-to-be, from the Mohammadpur area of the capital, was admitted to the DMCH labour ward in the early hours of August 19, where she gave birth to twins. Doctors transferred Luna and her healthy boys to ward number 213. Luna’s mother, Gulnur Begum, accompanied them.

On Wednesday morning around 8am, a 40 to 45 year old woman, who said a relative had been admitted to the hospital, began to befriend Luna and her mother. She kept up a friendly conversation with Luna, offering advice on breastfeeding and neonatal care, and kept them company until afternoon.

That night she joined Luna’s family for dinner and then slept in an unoccupied bed in the neonatal ward. In the morning, while Luna was feeding one of the twins, the woman offered to take care of the other child.

Luna happily consented. The woman then promptly disappeared with the boy.

By the time Luna realised something was wrong and notified hospital authorities, it was too late. The woman had left the hospital, giving the two Ansar officials on duty the slip.

When asked about the case, Abdul Khaleq, platoon commander of the DMCH Ansar force told the Dhaka Tribune that his staff had assumed the woman was a relative because she had chatted and shared a meal with Luna and her mother, so they did not check the woman properly when she left.

The ward master of DMCH, Babul, filed a stolen child case with Shahbagh police station, Sub-Inspector Nabullah of Shahbagh police station confirmed.

The two-day-old child’s father, Kawsar, alleged that hospital authorities were running a child-theft syndicate and knew his son’s whereabouts. He said hospital authorities filed a case with the police station without contacting him first.

The deputy director of DMCH, Dr Mushfiqur Rahman, said it was the hospital’s responsibility to file a case because the incident happened on hospital premises. A three-member probe body, with labour ward chief Prof Dr Ferdousi Islam as convener, would investigate the disappearance, he said.