'Alive But Declared Dead': Newborn Baby Moves Limbs Before Burial, Family Alleges Medical Negligence

A family in India has accused a government-run hospital of negligence after the latter declared their newborn baby dead despite her being alive.

The child's mother, who was just 23 weeks pregnant, had given birth to the baby at the hospital Sunday. The pre-term baby "weighed only 490 grams," a senior doctor told NDTV.

On Monday, the family members of the newborn girl said LNJP Hospital in India's capital Delhi declared the baby dead, and handed her over in a box.

However, she was found to be alive an hour and a half later. The child had reportedly started moving her limbs when the family began making preparations for her burial.

"Yesterday, my niece was born. She was alive but declared dead. ... The baby was handed over to us in a box and we took her to our home in New Mustafabad. We had started making preparations for her burial and ordered to prepare a grave for her. Around 7.30 pm, when we opened the box, we saw the baby moving her legs and arms. We immediately rushed her back to hospital," the child's uncle, Md Salman, told PTI over the phone.

Salman also alleged they tried to file a complaint, but the police did not register a formal complaint. When they reached the hospital, the doctors "shut their rooms and refused to admit the baby again."

"The guards misbehaved with us. We protested and asked them to admit the child but they refused to budge. We called the police, who then intervened and got the baby admitted again," Salman said.

"Her mother is admitted in a ward while the baby is in the nursery. We want the baby to be put on ventilator support but the hospital is not doing anything. We want action against the hospital," he said, adding that the current condition of the baby was not known.

Responding to the allegations, an unidentified senior LNJP Hospital doctor said, "The woman was brought to the hospital with stomach pain. She was 23-weeks pregnant. It was a normal delivery on Sunday but the baby weighed only 490 grams. In medical terms, such babies are considered aborted babies," NDTV reported.

The doctor added the staff had made efforts to resuscitate the baby.

This is not the first time such an incident has occurred at a hospital in India.

Last year, a newborn baby, who was declared dead at a hospital in the northern region of Jammu and Kashmir, was found alive an hour after being buried in a graveyard. The family were forced to dig up the baby's grave nearly an hour later as some local residents had raised objections over the burial location. When the child was taken out, the family found she was breathing. Earlier, the doctors at the hospital had handed over the baby to the family, saying she died soon after birth.