Probe report on 6 newborn deaths at Ad-din Hospital due tomorrow

The government-appointed probe committee is set to submit its investigation report tomorrow into the deaths of six newborns at Ad-din Medical College Hospital in the capital, following the incident that occurred on 27 May.

"We have completed almost all the work and hope to submit the probe report tomorrow," Joint Secretary to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare Md Mohsin, who heads the committee, told The Daily Star today.

The six newborns, aged between one and four days, died within a few hours of one another from 6:00am at the hospital in Dhaka’s Moghbazar.

According to hospital authorities, two of the babies were brought dead to the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) from the delivery post-operative room, while the remaining four died while undergoing treatment at the NICU.

The exact cause of the deaths has yet to be confirmed. However, officials of the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) and family members of the victims have blamed shortcomings in management and ventilation in the post-operative room.

The health ministry formed a three-member probe committee, led by Mohsin, on the day of the incident and instructed it to submit its findings within three days.

Later, four additional members were co-opted into the committee, and the deadline was extended to June 3, as investigators sought to record statements from the mothers of the deceased infants. The move came as neither post-mortem examinations nor inquest reports had been prepared in connection with the deaths.

Mohsin said the committee had recorded statements from four mothers.