Mumbai: As a city couple welcomed their bundle of joy on March 26, it never crossed their mind that within hours of his arrival, he would be heralded as the city's youngest coronavirus patient.
The 3-day infant is currently admitted at Kasturba hospital along with his mother, who too has tested positive. According to doctors, both the mother and the son are stable and are being treated.
The couple from Chembur's Sindhi Camp area was shocked to learn that their child is infected with the deadly virus despite them taking a "private room" in a private hospital near their residence, to avoid contamination. According to Vicky Singh (32), he admitted his wife on March 26 as her delivery was scheduled for that date.
"I had asked for a private room as I was scared on account of the pandemic; more so, since this is our first child. My wife delivered a healthy baby boy after a caesarean surgery," Vicky told the Free Press Journal.
"Our happiness was boundless at that point of time. But we had no idea that the moment would be transient, as within two hours of the delivery, the Chembur hospital authorities asked us to change the room. I refused to do so as it was midnight and they did not give me a clear reason for shifting us," Vicky added.
The hotelier claims that the hospital authorities did not inform them that they had kept a coronavirus patient in the same room where his wife was admitted. "This is clearly negligence. They told me about the corona patient later and within seconds of hearing it, we vacated that room. But, by then, my wife was infected," Vicky claims.
"We were kept for three days and during this period no doctor paid any visit to look up my wife or child. We shifted to Kasturba hospital on Wednesday evening, where tests confirmed that both mother and the new born were positive," said Vicky, whose own report was negative.
Aggrieved at the conduct of the authorities at the private hospital, Vicky is now pressing for "proper care" of his baby boy and wife. "As of now no doctor has come to check my son yet at Kasturba. Only my ward (M-West) authorities have told me that my family is stable. All I seek is proper care for my son who is hardly three-days old," said the distraught father.
