Children continue to die at Gorakhpur’s BRD Medical College, 1,049 deaths since January

BRD Medical College

Deaths of children at Baba Raghav Das (BRD) Medical College in Uttar Pradesh’s Gorakhpur continue unabated. As many as 1,049 children deaths have been reported in the first six months of 2018.

The Uttar Pradesh Government has clearly not made any efforts to address the problem, which has recurred to haunt it.

Out of the total, 73 children died due to encephalitis and 681 died in the hospital’s Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU). These children were suffering from infections, respiratory problems, underweight, etc. The deaths due to encephalitis increased this year.

Going month-wise, January recorded 129 children deaths, followed by 140 in February, 235 in March, 186 in April, 182 in May and 177 in June, leading to a total of 1,049 children deaths in the first six months of 2018.

This can be further bifurcated into the number of deaths that took place in NICU and Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU). A PICU cares for infants and children up to age 17 whereas an NICU (neonatal = newborn infants) specializes solely in the treatment of newborns who need a little more TLC.

So, a total of 681 children died in NICU while PICU reported 368 deaths from January to June, 2018.

Things were no different last year. During the same time period last year, 1,201 children deaths were reported at BRD Medical College.

In August, 213 children died at Gorakhpur’s BRD Hospital in Uttar Pradesh due to shortage of oxygen supply. Most notably, Uttar Pradesh has the highest mortality rate for children.

The issue came to light when in August last year, 213 children died due to shortage of oxygen supply. Most notably, Uttar Pradesh has the highest mortality rate for children.

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Be it Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand, Maharashtra or Madhya Pradesh, children are seen dying in hospitals due to gross negligence of the BJP-led state governments.

In Jharkhand, 52 infants died at Jamshedpur’s Mahatma Gandhi Memorial Medical College hospital in the August 2017. In fact, 164 children lost their lives in the same month in the last 90 days. This year alone, 660 children have died in Ranchi’s Rajendra Institute of Medical Sciences.

Then, in Maharashtra, deaths of infant and children totalled 21,985 in the last two years – 17,944 infant deaths and 4,041 children. As per the latest report of NFHS, at least 64 children below the age of six die every day in Madhya Pradesh and its infant mortality rate is worse than that of some African countries.

UPA 1 and 2 went beyond rhetoric when it came to the empowerment of women and the welfare of children compared to the non-performance of NDA. Keeping in view, children’s protection and welfare, the Congress-led UPA set up the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights.

Apart from failing miserably in every core issue right from economy to jobs, the NDA government has reversed the gains made in public health care by the UPA.

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