Absence of incubator in Bangladesh hospital puts four newborn quintuplets at 'great risk'

The lives of four of the five babies born together at Comilla Medical College Hospital are at 'risk' due to the absence of an incubator in the government hospital.

Tanzina Akter Sumaiya from Barurha gave birth to the quintuplets early on Sunday morning. One of them was stillborn.

Sumaiya's husband Tofazzal Hossain is an expatriate working in Oman.

The hospital's paediatric department physician, Dr Md Delwar Hossain, said the four newborns were at 'great risk' as they were born only 27 weeks into Sumaiya's pregnancy.

"Their condition is deteriorating as there is no incubator or radiant warmer in the hospital," he said.

He recommended taking them to hospitals like Dhaka's BIRDEM General Hospital or Square Hospital which have incubators.

The doctor said the babies, weighing 900 to 1,000 grams each, cannot be kept warm. "They are often getting cold," he said.

Doctors said 10 of the 12 radiant warmers at the hospital were not working while the two others produce excessive heat.

Trainee doctor Nahid Sharmin said the babies, two boys and two girls, were born naturally. The dead child was a girl.

Another trainee doctor, Tanzina Nahar Laboni, said they were kept wrapped in cotton.

She said they need good treatment in Dhaka, but the family does not have the financial ability to take them to the capital.