Srinagar, Aug 26: A three day old baby has been left to fend for himself in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) at the Valley’s sole maternity health institution Lal Ded hospital here. 
 The baby born on Wednesday is being fed by paramedical staffers.
 Doctors in the hospital said that baby’s mother Afroza dropped in the hospital on Wednesday without any attendant or a family member. They said that after proper medical check-up she delivered a male baby that night. However, they said that since then nobody has visited her in the hospital.
 “She is uncooperative to doctors as well as to her child. The height of non-cooperation is that she never ever fed her baby. Now hospital nurses feed the baby,” said Dr Nazir Chowdhry Medical Superintendent of the LD.
 The child, he said, has been admitted in NICU ward for proper treatment and feeding after birth.
 Doctors said that baby is quite active without any deformity and sickness. “We had no reason to admit the baby in the NICU but we were left with no other option as his mother refused to breast feed him. We tried to persuade her but to no avail,” said a doctor.
 She said Afroza seems ‘mentally retarded.’
 The Medical Superintendent said that police have been informed about the case. “Two policemen tried to ask her about the father of the child but she gave an awkward reply,” he added.
 “That lady not only is hostile towards her child but she is also creating hurdles in our routine medical examination,” doctors said. “In the medical records there is no mention of child’s father.”
 A senior Police official said that such cases have come to fore earlier as well. “Several such cases are registered with us. It has happened earlier also,” the official added.

Lastupdate on : Fri, 26 Aug 2011 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Fri, 26 Aug 2011 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Sat, 27 Aug 2011 00:00:00 IST