DNA test to be done

CHENNAI: The State Government has decided to go ahead with the DNA test to establish parentage of two babies born on Thursday at Rajah Sir Ramasami Mudaliar Hospital in Royapuram.

The decision follows refusal of the families of the babies to accept that there was a mistake in tagging the mothers though the hospital had correctly recorded the birth of the children in its registers.

On Thursday, Farida Begum of Washermenpet and Kamakshi Elangovan of Red Hills gave birth to a boy and a girl respectively within a gap of 20 minutes . A mix-up in tagging the mother (the numbers were 445 and 455), resulted in the boy being given to Kamakshi and the girl to Farida.

Realising their mistake, the hospital staff tried to return the babies to their biological mothers.

Kamakshi’s family refused to accept the child stating that the hospital had first given her the boy. Mediation by the hospital dean, Mythili Bhaskaran, did not help. The hospital authorities pointed out that the only way to settle the dispute would be DNA test.

On Sunday, Director of Medical Education, T.P. Kalaniti, told The Hindu that the decision to do the DNA test had been taken following a police complaint.

According to Deputy Commissioner of Police (Washermenpet) Kamini the complaint has been filed by the Resident Medical Officer of the hospital. Security has been beefed up at the hospital.

On possible action against the erring staff, Dr.Kalaniti: “We want to first resolve the issue and then take action.

It was an inadvertent mistake. Even if it was a lower level staff who made the mistake, the responsibility lies with the supervisor to ensure that it is set right,” he said.