Newborn baby ‘mauled to death’ in operating theatre by stray dogs

Hospital claims baby was stillborn, but police and family say child was alive and just hours old when animals entered an open window

File: India has an estimated 50m stray dogs, more than any other country (Getty)

A newborn baby has been mauled to death by a pack of dogs in India, police say, after a stray entered the operating theatre through an open window.

The incident at a small private hospital in Farrukhabad, Uttar Pradesh, has sparked public outrage and led to the closure of the facility by state authorities.

The baby’s family and staff at the Akash Ganga Hospital disagree over precisely what happened at around 8.30am on Monday, with the administration saying the child was stillborn.

But neither party disputes the fact that a dog was able to enter the hospital and inflict brutal injuries to the baby’s body before it could be chased away by horrified onlookers.

Initial charges of causing death by negligence have been brought against the hospital, investigating officer Ved Prakash Panday told the AFP news agency.

“The family alleged the baby was left unattended inside the theatre with windows open, leading to the attack,” he said, adding that police awaited a postmortem report before any arrests would be made.

The child’s father, Ravi Kumar, had come to hospital with his pregnant wife Kanchan going into labour.

He told the Times of India the nursing staff told him his wife would need a caesarean, and that she was taken to the operating theatre.

He says hospital staff informed him the procedure had been successful, and that his wife had been moved to rest in a ward while the child was still inside the operating theatre. It was then, with the father waiting outside, that the attack allegedly took place.

Hearing a commotion, Kumar says he rushed back to the theatre. “I saw my child lying on the floor in a pool of blood,” he said. “He had bite marks on his chest and left eye. He was lying still with no movement. The dog [then] again tried to enter the theatre while I screamed for help.”

Kumar said he confronted hospital staff, who “instead of feeling guilty, offered me money and asked me to remain silent over the incident”.

Staff claimed, both in comments to the family at the time and later in a statement from the hospital administration, that the baby was stillborn and therefore already dead at the time the dog inflicted the injuries.

But local officials said an initial investigation pointed to the fact that the child was alive after the birth. A full report, including the results of a post-mortem, was to be produced within three days, said district magistrate Manvendra Singh.

The state health ministry did not respond to requests for comment on Wednesday, but the Press Trust of India reported that the district’s Chief Medical Officer, Dr Chandra Shekhar, visited the premises on Monday night and sealed it until further notice.

CCTV camera recordings were also seized from the hospital, police said. In the meantime, an initial charge sheet - known in India as a First Incident Report (FIR) - has been filed against one doctor and the hospital administration, based on Kumar’s formal complaint.

Superintendent of Police Anil Kumar Misra said a probe was underway and "action will be taken on the basis of the investigation report".