Ants kills premature triplets in Cross River hospital

Two out of three premature triplets who were delivered in Obubra local government area of Cross River State on May 10, 2019 have died due to alleged negligence.
They were delivered at a primary health center in Obubra local government area and referred from to a hospital in Ikom local government area.

Director General of the Cross River State Primary Health Care Development Agency, Dr Betta Edu, who had given immediately given support to the babies by providing a generator and fuel to run the incubator for the three babies, regretted the sad incident.
She had also made provision for food and cloths as well as financial assistance for the new babies.
It was gathered that monies being sent for the upkeep of the children were allegedly mismanaged by the father and also the babies were allegedly neglected by the hospital such that ants got into their incubators, which led to their deaths.

Speaking with reportrrs in Calabar, Edu said, “They were safely delivered at a PHC and referred to the next level of care because they were premature. This was a private hospital with an incubator. We brought and fueled generator at the hospital, donated items baby food amongst other things just to sustain the babies while medical care was being provided by the private hospital.
“We also got several persons to make donations to the father of the child to further sustain the children and pay bills at the private hospital. Unfortunately, the father never brought out any of those monies to support their stay at the hospital. For the allegations on neglect, we have not been able to establish that yet. We are carrying out an investigation to ascertain the cause of death of the two while we have asked the hospital to refer them to teaching hospital calabar.
“We will also impress on the father who is holding unto the donated funds and have refused to support their welfare to do so. We hope the premature baby left survives and the mother continues in good health.
“It is rather sad that despite all the effort put we lost them. Our heart and condolences go to the family. This is again adding to the already high infant mortality rate in Nigeria. We are hopeful that the declaration of the maternal and child health emergency in Nigeria by the NPHCDA will help us tackle more of this situations. This was clearly beyond primary level of care.”