Since yesterday, the newborn has been hospitalised with hypoglycemia and severe infection, for which she needs high degree antibiotics, which her father can’t afford
19-day-old baby
All through Thursday, the distraught father of a 19-day-old infant ran from pillar to post in desperate search of funds, to buy medicines that his daughter urgently needs.
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But all his efforts were in vain. His daughter, who is a little over two weeks old, was admitted to a hospital in Nerul on Thursday morning, after she contracted an infection and became hypoglemic.
The child has been incubated in the NICU of Dr D Y Patil hospital in Nerul
The doctors put the newborn on ventilator immediately, but have asked the parents to buy strong antibiotics that are the only drugs to treat the infection.
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| IN NEED: The child’s father shows the prescription that lists the medicines that he cannot afford to buy |
The infant, who is yet to be given a name, was born on March 22. Her mother Devi Deshmukh, who was waiting outside the Neo Natal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) of Dr DY Patil hospital in Nerul, said, “My daughter was fine since her birth. In the wee hours of Thursday, she started getting convulsions and turned cold. I informed my husband and we rushed her to the hospital. The doctors informed us that the baby was critically ill and had developed an infection. She was put on ventilator. They had asked us to get certain medicines, which cost around R3,000. My husband has gone to look for the money, as we do not have the cash in hand to buy them.”
While the infant’s father Anis Deshmukh is a rickshaw driver, Devi has been staying at home ever since she conceived. The 30-year-old woman would earlier work as a house help. Anis said, “I am trying my best to get the medicines for the child but I have no money. Nor have I been able to get a loan from anybody. Our baby had jaundice initially, but we never thought that her condition would get so serious,” said the father.
Meanwhile, the doctors at the hospital said that the ventilator kit and blood products could be provided to the child with the help of a social worker, but the family would have to procure the medicines themselves.
The doctor-in-charge at the NICU said, “The child was bought on Thursday morning in an extremely weak condition.
We have put her on ventilator, but there are medicines that the child would require to treat the infection that she had caught. We have asked the parents to get them.” Devi is at the hospital round the clock. A senior doctor at the hospital said that since the child was hypoglycaemic and suffering from severe infection, she had to be incubated.
“The baby had a severe degree of infection and, therefore, requires certain high degree antibiotics, so that complications can be avoided,” he said.
Want to help? Call the hospital’s social worker Nitin Yashwante on 9967105040 or Dr. More 9619336868
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