Inside Kota’s JK Lon Hospital, where more than 900 children have died in 2019 alone

Kota's JK Lon Hospital is in the news for the rise in newborn deaths. Patients blame the hospital, whose administration has maintained that due medical procedure has been followed.

The family of 9-year Joginder (photo at back) who died in Kota's JK Lon Hospital after neither of the 2 ventilators worked | Photo: Praveen Jain | ThePrint

Kota: The death toll in J.K. Lon Mother and Child Hospital in Kota, Rajasthan, has crossed
100 since December. These deaths are of children, mostly newborns. The hospital also recorded a death toll of 943 in 2019 and, on an average, has seen nearly 1,100 children die since 2014.

Parents of the children blame the negligence of doctors and lack of facilities and poor hygiene conditions. While the Head of Paediatrics at J.K. Lon Hospital, A.L. Bairwa, said that since the hospital is a tertiary one, it gets cases from different districts in Rajasthan and even Madhya Pradesh, of which most cases are too critical to revive. He also stated that reports of negligence by doctors were not even 1 per cent true and that there was no role of faulty equipment in the deaths of the children.

From 2014-19, J.K. Lon Hospital recorded a total death toll of 6,646 children | Photo: Praveen Jain | ThePrint

Mothers wait out side the labour room | Photo: Praveen Jain | ThePrint

According to the hospital’s equipment list, out of 533 medical devices required for treatment, 320 were not working | Photo: Praveen Jain | ThePrint

People claim that there are 2-4 people to one bed, many warmers are non-functional and windows have no glass and are only covered by a thin curtain| Photo: Praveen Jain | ThePrint

Woman prays for the recovery of baby Asma, after she was transferred to a hospital in Jaipur, as her family was dissatisfied with the treatment at J.K. Lon Hospital | Photo: Praveen Jain | ThePrint

Guntabai and Buddhraj of Rajgadh village say they were abused by guards as Guntabai was recovering from her operation, waiting for her stitches to heal. This was after they both lost their newborn in the hospital | Photo: Praveen Jain | ThePrint

Lok Sabha Speaker and MP from Kota Om Birla visited families of people whose children died in JK Lon Hospital. He said he did not want to politicise the matter and only wanted to work for the victims’ families, most of whom were very poor | Photo: Praveen Jain | ThePrint

Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan said he has sent a high level team of experts to analyse the situation in Kota | Photo: Praveen Jain | ThePrint