Ramanathapuram couple blames doctor for missing baby

Sakthivel has filed a police complaint and is demanding a DNA test, even as officials allege the parents had sold their child. The baby, meanwhile, has been placed under the care of of Grace Kennet Foundation, Madurai.

Life has been traumatic for Sakthivel of Singarathoppu and his wife Kavitha, for the last four months. Their third child, a girl, was born on Sept 16, 2015, in C-section delivery at a private hospital in Ramanathapuram district. The mother was discharged from the hospital after a few days and the infant was kept in incubator, as they were told the umbilical cord had wound around the baby’s neck. 

“However, they told us our baby had died a few days later. We believed the doctor because she is a relative of ours,” says Sakthivel. However, during a post-delivery checkup, a nurse in the same hospital had alerted the parents and said that the doctor had given their baby to another family in the same district. “We later managed to track the family and went to their house to see if they did have a baby. They insisted there were no children in their house, but I could hear a baby cry,” he adds. 

After much persistence, the doctor admitted that the baby had been given to the other family. “She told us that she did it to help us as we already have two girl children to take care of,” says Sakthivel. He says that after his lawyer sent a notice to the doctor in December,2015, he was approached by some people on behalf of the doctor. “They came with a baby and asked us to take the child back, saying that she was ours. But the baby looked older than three months. I refused to accept and asked for DNA tests, but they filed a complaint against me saying that I had willingly given my baby to the family and that I was now asking for more money. We received threats a number of times from the doctor,” he says. Despite repeated attempts, the doctor was not available for comments. 

Sakthivel says that the uncertainty over the condition of their baby has resulted in mental agony for his wife, who is at present undergoing treatment at the Royapettah GH in Chennai. They say they are willing to take the child back once the DNA test confirms the baby is theirs.