2-Month-Old's Body Abandoned By Parents After Baby Tested Positive For COVID-19

A 2-month-old baby's body was abandoned in a hospital in India by his parents after the child tested positive for COVID-19.

The shocking incident took place Monday in the northern state of Jammu and Kashmir. The baby was admitted to the Shri Maharaja Gulab Singh (SMGS) Hospital Jammu on Sunday as he was suffering from a congenital heart disease, media outlet The Northlines reported.

The child was tested for COVID-19 after he died of a cardiac arrest. When the hospital staff informed his parents that the child had tested positive, they abandoned the body and fled the facility.

“His parents left the hospital without taking the body of their baby along,” a hospital source told the media outlet. “The hospital staff tried their best to catch the baby’s parents and persuade them to take the body of the baby along but all efforts failed.”

Medical superintendent of SMGS hospital, Jammu, Dr. Dara Singh, informed the 2-month-old baby's parents brought the child to the hospital early morning Sunday.

“The baby was suffering from congenital heart disease and other problems and he died of cardiac arrest at around 8 PM,” he said. “Soon after cardiac arrest, RAT test was done which came positive after which we asked his parents to undergo COVID test as well, but instead of going for testing, they fled.”

Singh said the hospital staff continuously called the child's parents but they did not answer the calls.

“We have kept the body of the baby in the hospital mortuary,” Singh said.

Sources at the hospital told another media outlet, the Kashmir Walla, in case the baby's parents don't come to take the child's corpse, hospital authorities would cremate the 2-month-old under proper COVID protocols. The staff also said this was the first such incident in the state since the pandemic started.

India is currently battling an overwhelming surge of COVID-19 cases and deaths with more than 400,000 positive cases being reported daily. On Tuesday, the country's tally crossed the 20 million mark with thousands of patients scrambling to find hospital beds, oxygen cylinders and life-saving medication amid a shortage of medical resources.