Rats allegedly bite newborn to death at Indore’s MY Hospital; nurses suspended, pest control firm fined

In the wake of rats allegedly biting a newborn to death and another being in critical condition at Madhya Pradesh's largest government infirmary the city-based Maharaja Yeshwantrao (MY) Hospital, the management has placed a couple of nurses under suspension and imposed a fine of Rs 1 lakh on the company that undertook pest control.

Meanwhile, the state's principal-opposition Congress placed the government in the dock and alleged anarchy at the medical facility.

"The two nurses present on the night of the incident have been suspended. Show cause notices were issued to two of the Intensive Care Unit's Nursing Officers In-charge and the head of the Paediatric Surgery Department. The Nursing Superintendent has been removed. A high-level committee -- comprising five doctors -- was constituted and shall submit its report within a week," Mahatma Gandhi Memorial Medical College Dean Arvind Ghanghoria told the media.

The matter assumed political hues with Congress state President Jitu Patwari telling the press today that the child was harmed not by rats but by the "corrupt" administration.

'"Can the government punish the Superintendent? It cannot. The dispensation will take action only against small fry. Why is there so much anarchy at MY and what is the Health Minister doing in this connection?" Patwari asked.

Some videos that are going viral in social media show rats moving about between machines in the Neonatal ICU. The videos have been made by patients' kin.