Malappuram: Malappuram district collector A. Shainmol has asked the police to take strict action against the owners of the Sprouts International Maternity Studio, a naturopathic birthing clinic where three infants died during water birth sessions recently. The collector handed over the report, which was submitted by the district medical officer on Thursday after an inquiry into the deaths of infants at the clinic, to the additional district magistrate for further action. DMO Dr. Ummer Farook has sought legal action against the clinic at Valakkulam near Kottakkal in the district in the wake of the death of an infant during water birth session there.
The DMO suggested to close the clinic permanently and to book Aabir Hyder, the chief practitioner and owner of the clinic, in connection with the death of three infants in similar cases. “The clinic violated an earlier order of the health department to shut it down. We had asked them to wind up all the maternity services at the clinic two months ago after a family complained regarding an infant’s death which is similar to the incident reported last week,” Dr. Farook said.
The inquiry conducted by Dr. R. Renuka, deputy DMO and reproductive child health officer, found that Aabir Hyder, the naturopathic physician who runs the clinic, has no professional qualification to carry out delivery sessions. “The three women whose infants died during water birth sessions at the clinic had previously undergone caesarean sections and were medically unfit for a normal delivery. But nobody had complained until the last week’s incident,” said Dr. Renuka.
The clinic has been closed and the practitioner went absconding after the relatives of Haseena Muhammed, whose delivery in a bath tub went wrong, lodged a complaint at Kottakkal police station on October 19. The police probe is stuck with the delay in getting the autopsy report from the medical college, Kozhikode, said Mr T. Suresh Babu, Sub-Inspector of Kottakkal.
