Four new-born babies died in the special neonatal care unit (SNCU) of a government hospital in Chhattisgarh's Surguja district on Monday, prompting the state government to order a probe, an official said.
The deadly fire at the special newborn care unit of the Kamla Nehru children's hospital in Bhopal started when a ventilator machine was plugged in and sparks flew, an inquiry report said on Wednesday.
The newborns, who were just about one to nine days old, had not even been named by their parents as they were admitted to the Special Newborn Care Unit (SNCU) of the government-run Kamala Nehru Hospital for treatment.
Three children admitted in government-run Kamla Nehru Children's Hospital in Bhopal died in a fire that broke out on Monday night, Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan said.
The fire in the ICU of a hospital in Maharashtra's Ahmednagar district is one more in a series of devastating blazes in the state, claiming lives of coronavirus patients.
Many parents whose newborn babies were among those dead in the Bhandara hospital fire have blamed the staff there for dereliction of duty. They claimed that no doctor or nurse was present in the unit when fire broke out.
Opposition Congress on Wednesday claimed a total of 14 children died at the Madhya Pradesh government-run Kamla Nehru children's hospital in Bhopal in the last 48 hours, contrary to the state government's claim that only four infants lost their lives in the November 8 blaze, and demanded a probe by a sitting judge of the high court.
The shocking death of 53 infants in the last 11 days at Sishu Bhavan in Cuttack have raised questions about poor infrastructure and shortage of doctors in major hospitals in Odisha.