Hyderabad: A newborn boy and girl were swapped at the Koti Maternity Hospital leading to misunderstanding and tension between the two families and the para-medical staff on Tuesday evening. Early on Tuesday morning Ms Rajita B., wife of Mr Shatru Babu from Mahbub-nagar district, gave birth to a girl and Ms Ramadevi K., wife of Mr Jana Reddy from Ranga Reddy, delivered a boy.
The babies were kept in the children’s ward as the mothers were recuperating in the general ward. At around 3pm, the nurse called for Ms Ramadevi to take the boy for nursing, but the relatives of Ms Rajita came and took the boy away. When Ms Rama-devi asked about her child, the nurse realised that she had wrongly given away the child to Ms Rajita’s relatives.
Meanwhile relatives of Ms Rajita got upset and stated that the boy was theirs and the hospital was purposely handing over a girl to them. For an hour they kept the boy and protested inside the hospital. Police had to be called to handle the situation.
With no senior doctors around, the police asked the relatives to allow both babies to be kept separate and the issue would be sorted on Wednesday once the treating doctor was available. A junior doctor said on condition of anonymity, “Rajita’s family members wrongly took the child and created the confusion. Despite tags being placed on the babies, they were not ready to listen. It’s a clear case of misunderstanding.”
