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Hyderabad: A newborn baby lost his left arm due to the alleged negligence of medical professionals at the government-run Mother and Child Health Centre (MCH) in Khammam.

According to local reports, a couple, Renuka and Satyakanth, hailing from Punyapuram village of Wyra mandal, had twins at a private hospital in Khammam on March 3.

Renuka had given birth in the seventh month of her pregnancy; therefore, while one of the boys was a healthy 3 kg, the other weighed only 1.2 kg.

Unable to afford the required care at the private hospital, the smaller boy was shifted to the Khammam MCH, where Renuka’s relative, Vijayakumari, looked after him.

The baby was kept in an incubator and given blood transfusions. After 18 days, Vijaykumari noticed swelling on the baby’s arm and brought this to the doctor’s attention.

However, they reportedly dismissed the issue and prescribed an ointment. Three more days passed, and when the baby’s arm started to turn black, doctors asked for a scan, which revealed that the arm had caught gangrene.

The boy was finally shifted to Niloufer Hospital in Hyderabad on March 26, where doctors had no other option but to amputate his arm.

Speaking to Siasat.com, the Superintendent of the Khammam Government General Hospital, Dr Narendar, said, “Blood transfusions have to be carried out through a different vein every time, in this process, one of the veins was blocked due to thrombophlebitis (an inflammatory process where a blood clot forms and blocks one or more veins) and blood circulation was cut off.”

“When the staff noticed this, they immediately shifted the child to Hyderabad,” he said. When asked if the staff had neglected the situation for three days, the Superintendent said, “We will have to look at the records and find out, because when there is thrombophlebitis, there is usually an ointment for it, rest, we will have to find out from the team.”