In a pathetic example of human callousness, a stillborn baby was dumped into a hospital dustbin in Chattogram yesterday. The body of the male child was finally recovered from a Chattogram City Corporation vehicle carrying medical waste after 10 hours. The incident happened at People’s Hospital in the port city. Police sources said one Amena Begum, 26, a resident of Chandagaon area, was admitted to the hospital with labour pain early yesterday. She gave birth to twins — one male and one female—at dawn by a caesarean operation. The male one was premature and dead, following which a hospital staff dumped the body into a dustbin.

“My sister-in-law had given birth to twin babies. The hospital authorities gave us

one baby, but said the other had died. When we demanded to see the body, the hospital staff could not show it. They said they had dropped it in a dustbin. They did not even care to our permission,” said Mohammad Erfan, the baby’s uncle.

“Finally, we informed police and the hospital staff started a search for the body. After 10 hours, they recovered it from a vehicle at the waste dumping yard at Ananda Bazar Halishahar, which is about 10-km away from the hospital,” Erfan said.  

“How could someone dump a body into a dustbin?” he wondered.

The relatives took the baby for burial. Meanwhile, the other twin was undergoing treatment at another hospital in the city.

Admitting to the incident, managing director of People’s Hospital Dr Subash Chandra Sutradhar said, “The incident took place early in the morning. I was not present in the hospital at that time. However, a human body is not supposed to be dropped into a dustbin. We have taken punitive action against the staff who did it. Following the demand of the baby’s relatives, we halted the waste carrying vehicle and recovered the body.”

“It's the negligence of our staff, but I have to bear the responsibility. We apologise for the incident. We would be alert to avert such incidents in future,” he added. Md. Azizur Rahman, sub-inspector of Panchalish police station, said, “It’s illegal to throw a human body into a dustbin. We will take action against the hospital as per law.”

On April 18, a private clinic, Child Care Hospital, had handed over a dead male child to a woman in lieu of her five-day-old daughter who was undergoing treatment there.

According to sources, Rokhsana Akter, 21, who hailed from Noakhali, had admitted her daughter to the ICU of Child Care Hospital in Chattogram on April 15. After three days of treatment, the hospital authorities declared that the baby girl had died and gave Rokhsana a wrapped body. While making preparations for the funeral of her daughter, the woman discovered that the body was that of a male child.