Mumbai: After two orphanage baby deaths, 4 other infants return ‘home’

MUMBAI: Four babies among the six from Bal Anand in Chembur who were hospitalized for diarrhoea and dehydration were discharged on Sunday, even as the deaths of the other two infants continued to baffle their caregivers and the investigators. Six days since the incident, the BMC said it was likely to collect food and water samples from the orphanage on Monday.

Bal Anand has formed a committee to find the cause of deaths and hospitalisation of the babies aged between six months and 1.5 years. It started with one child having loose motions on December 24—this baby is back from hospital. The next afternoon more babies had mild bouts of diarrhoea. By December 27, two infants, aged six and ten months—had died, and four were hospitalised. Apart from the usual suspicion of food or water contamination, cops are probing if Christmas Day visitors brought any infection.

On Christmas, 20-30 of the privately-run Bal Anand’s regular donors visit and spend time with the kids. “This year too, our visitors came. Our older babies ate cake and other food, but nobody had a problem,” said Madhavi Mhatre, director of Bal Anand. “Moreover, the babies who fell ill, were on milk, baby food and khichdi, which was consumed by all children,” she said. She added that small babies are given boiled water.

Mhatre said babies who had diarrhoea on December 25 were given medicines by a doctor. But things deteriorated between December 25 midnight and early on December 26 when some babies continued to have loose motions. All five babies were subsequently rushed to hospitals the next morning and admitted to ICUs. Five-month-old Khushi succumbed soon after admission while ten-month-old Jaydeep died on December 27. While Khushi was slightly underweight and had previously suffered from diarrhoea, she was doing well presently. Jaydeep was healthy. Both succumbed to gastroenteritis and dehydration. (Inputs by Ahmed Ali)