Ahmedabad Civil Hospital

In a concerning trend, a total of 156 newborns died at the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) in the civil hospital in Ahmedabad’s Asarwa between January and March this year.

Among these deaths, 46.50% were attributed to low birth weight. Out of 58 deaths of newborns, 28.60% were due to preterm birth at the civil hospital.

For the remaining 98 deaths, the babies were born elsewhere and then admitted to the civil hospital’s NICU. Out of them, 58.10% died due to low birth weight.

According to the information obtained, 639 babies were born at the civil hospital, while 558 were admitted to the NICU from other hospitals, totalling 1,197 babies admitted between January and March.

Low birth weight and preterm birth were found to be the leading causes of neonatal deaths.

Similarly, 28.60% of babies born at the civil hospital and 37.70% of babies admitted there after being born elsewhere died due to prematurity.

Apart from these, 29 babies died due to sepsis (blood poisoning), 24 due to congenital malformations (birth defects), 22 due to respiratory distress syndrome (RDS), 24 due to meconium aspiration syndrome (MAS), and 16 due to hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy (HIE).

Of the 156 babies who died, 39 had a low birth weight, 36 had a birth weight of 1 to 1.5 kg, 43 had a birth weight of 1.5 to 2.5 kg, and 38 had a birth weight of more than 2.5 kg. This indicates that 25% of the babies died due to malnutrition during the three months.

During these three months, 34 babies from district hospitals, 5 from GCS Hospital, 59 from private hospitals in Ahmedabad, 21 born at home, 15 born outside Ahmedabad, and 31 born outside Gujarat were admitted to the civil hospital for further treatment.

Of these, 4 babies born at home and 14 babies born in private hospitals were among the dead.