Rayagada: Allegations of baby swapping surfaced in the Rayagada District Headquarters Hospital (DHH) after a couple lodged a complaint accusing the medical staff of swapping their newborn son with a dead newborn girl.
As per the complaint, a woman of Kumbharasila village under Kashipur block of the district had delivered a baby boy at the DHH yesterday. However, the newborn's health condition deteriorated following which the baby was admitted to the SNCU ward of Koraput hospital. Today, the Rayagada DHH staff handed over a dead newborn girl to the couple. However, the couple did not accept the baby alleging it was not theirs.
Sibaram Kumar, a relative of the woman, said "My niece told me that she delivered a baby boy. The next day I was told by the hospital authorities that she delivered a dead girl at around 5 AM today."
On the other hand, Rayagada Additional District Medical Officer (ADMO) refuted the allegations terming it as false. He said that no baby boy was delivered in the hospital yesterday.
"The identification tags are there. Footprint of the baby has also been taken on the tag. There is no chance of baby swapping in the hospital," ADMO Sibra Prasad Padhi said.