CM Mamata Banerjee assures she'll look into plaints by baby's parents

Kolkata: Chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday assured family members of the two-year-old baby girl who died at a private hospital in the city that she would look into their complaint of medical negligence by the hospital authorities.

Ms Banerjee spoke to the parents of the baby, who visited her Kalighat residence, for more than an hour, sources in the family said.

“We spoke to our honourable chief minister and told her everything in detail. She has assured us to look into the matter,” the baby’s mother said after the meeting.

The family members of the baby had alleged maltreatment and negligence by the AMRI Mukundapur unit and demanding action against it. She had been admitted to the hospital since Monday with acute respiratory distress coupled with cough and hoarseness and high fever and died on Wednesday.

Parents of the baby also lodged a formal complaint against the hospital authorities with the West Bengal Clinical Establishment Regulatory Commission.

They had also lodged an FIR at Jadavpur police station against the hospital authorities and paediatric unit head of AMRI Mukundapur, Jayanti Chatterjee alleging medical negligence leading to the death of their daughters.

Sources in Kolkata Police said the hospital authorities have been asked to provide yesterday’s CCTV footage where family members of the deceased had a heated exchange with the hospital CEO and the paediatric unit head, who was seen allegedly threatening them.

Meanwhile, tests were conducted on tissue samples from the deceased’s heart to check whether she was suffering from any latent congenital defect as alleged by the hospital authorities, family sources said.