It has been alleged that two out of three pre-mature babies delivered at the Primary Health Centre (PHC) in Obubra Local Government Area of Cross River State have died from negligence.
An eyewitness, who gave the name of the mother of the babies as Antonia said, “When the babies were born, the Director General (DG), State Primary Health Care Development Agency, Dr Betta Edu was immediately contacted.
“The DG directed that the babies and the mother be immediately transferred to a facility that has incubator, unfortunately, the General Hospital there has no such facility, so they were referred to a private hospital in Ikom,” she said.
Disappointingly, the hospital said they have no generator, the DG ordered for a generator, provided fuel for the generator and the babies were kept in the incubator in the Hospital.
It was gathered that the monies being sent for the upkeep of the children were allegedly mismanaged by the father and the babies were allegedly neglected by the hospital such that ants got into their incubator, which led to the death of two out of the three babies.
The DG, who responded to Correspondents’ calls, said: “the mother had a pre-term labour, this was after a fight with her neighbor, when the babies were born, I was called upon because it was a Primary Heath Centre and I said, management of pre-matured babies was beyond PHC.
“So, I immediately ordered for the referral of the babies and the mother to a facility that has incubator, unfortunately, the General Hospital there do not have incubator so they were referred to a private hospital in Ikom.
“I provided fuel; clothes and several items for the up keep of the babies and the mother. Gave the father of the triplet money in case the hospital needed money for consumables and directed my friends to pay money into the father’s account and that was done by some of my friends.”

Friday Nwagbara, Calabar