45-day-old boy baby dies day after vaccination, kin allege treatment delay at Tirunelveli PHC

CHENNAI: A 45-day-old male infant died a day after allegedly receiving vaccination in Tirunelveli. Following the incident, his relatives stormed the premises of an Primary Healthcare Centre (PHC) in Kandiyaperi alleging that the authorities did not start treatment immediately.

According to Maalaimalar and Thanthi TV reports, the infant was born to Alex Pandiyan, an Army man stationed in Rajasthan, and his wife, Sumathi Devi, at the Tirunelveli Medical College Hospital.

On Wednesday, he was vaccinated at an anganwadi centre on Thondar Mela Street in Tirunelveli town. Today, as the infant was being fed milk, he developed a nose bleed and later became unconscious. He was immediately rushed to a Primary Healthcare Centre (PHC) in Kandiyaperi by an ambulance.

The doctors there allegedly delayed treatment and later sent the infant by an ambulance to the Tirunelveli Medical College Hospital for further treatment. There, the doctors who examined him said he was brought dead.

Angered by this, the mother and kin of the deceased infant protested at the premises of the Kandiyaperi government PHC, alleging he died because of delay in treatment.

However, the PHC authorities claimed that the infant was brought at 8:30 am on Thursday and was already dead, as per a Maalaimalar report.