219 infant deaths in 2 Guj hospitals

STATE-RUN civil hospitals in Rajkot and Ahmedabad witnessed 219 deaths of children in the month of December last year. In Rajkot, 134 infants died in the final month of 2019.

- Gopi Maniar

At the same time there were 85 deaths in Ahmedabad civil hospital - the State’s largest government hospital - in December and 253 deaths in the last three months of the year.

A look at the Rajkot civil hospital for 2019 reveals that there were 1,235 infants deaths reported throughout the year. December saw the highest deaths (134), while October was the second highest with 131 infant deaths.

The death rate for infants stood at 18.68 percent of the total children admitted at the Ahmedabad Civic Hospital for the month of December, GS Rathod, the hospital’s superintendent said. “In December, 455 newborns were admitted in the neonatal intensive care unit (ICU) - of them, 85 died,” Rathod said.