A 17-day-old baby girl, Pranjali, was operated upon by a team of six doctors at Mumbai's Nair Hospital to retrieve a six centimetrelong nail wrapped in a one-metre long cloth from her stomach, reports Mumbai Mirror.
Even as the baby recovers at the Neonatal Intensive Care unit (NICU), the parents claim they have no clue how the murderous object got inside the baby's body.
Bharti and Dinesh Machhi are a couple from Dahanu with very limited financial resources and a five-yearold girl Kasturi. Twenty days ago, Bharti delivered a baby girl at home, but landed up at the Nair Hospital on Feb 19 when the baby could not breathe. A local doctor detected a piece of cloth in her chest and a long nail, which he could not remove.
Doctors at Nair Hospital say the baby's condition indicates that some attempt may have been made to kill her. Their suspicions were further stoked when they found Pranjali passing Meconium 20 days after her birth.
Meconium is the earliest stool of an infant, which is supposed to pass within the first few days of birth. In Pranjali's case, it seemed she was not being properly fed, leading to the delayed Meconium.
On February 19, when Pranjali was gasping for breath, Dinesh Machhi reportedly consulted the local ENT who detected the one metre piece of cloth in the baby's oesophagus and took it out. But the baby was still unstable, and he was asked to admit her in the hospital.
Dr Milind Navalakhe, associate professor, ENT department, Nair Hospital, explained the procedure. “Baby Pranjali was brought to us at night. We carried out a basic X-ray and spotted a huge nail which had covered almost the entire chest. So we decided to take her in for a surgery and at the same time, called the paediatric surgeon. We tried hard to extract the nail with an endoscope but could not. That's when we decided to push the nail into the baby's stomach. Our paediatric surgeon Shalika Jaiswal then removed the nail from her abdomen.”
Pranjali's father Dinesh said, “I don't know how this happened. There are just the three of us at home. We are filing a police complaint at Dahanu.”
His wife Bharti too was unable to offer an explanation. “I don't know how this happened,” she said.
Dr Navlakhe however, is not convinced by their defence. “It was not only the nail, but the black cloth wrapped around it which made it look as though someone had forcefully pushed it down the baby's throat. While the parents are saying they have no idea how this accident happened, the whole thing is highly suspicious and we have lodged a complaint with the hospital police.”
