Patna: A woman in Bihar has abandoned her newborn baby because she looked like an “alien baby” with thick white skin, red eyes and reversed lips.
The baby was born at a government hospital in Patna district on Saturday. The woman, who doesn’t want to be identified, is a resident of Azim Nagar under Paliganj block in Patna. The baby’s parents own a shoe shop in local Paliganj market.
“I am shocked and shattered. I don’t want to keep her at home,” the woman told the media today.
She said she didn’t have any idea as to how this happened. “I wanted to be a mother of a beautiful and healthy baby be it a boy or a girl but am shocked at this turn of events in my life,” said the 28-year-old traumatised woman who has “shunned” the baby.
Although the mother took the baby home after the birth, she is unwilling to keep the baby with her.
Villagers gathered at the hospital to see the baby soon after the news of her birth spread. The crowd has been thronging the house of the woman for a glimpse of the girl.
A doctor who was involved in the delivery of the baby said the newborn could be suffering from Harlequin Ichthyosis, which causes widespread and persistent thick, dry, “fish-scale” skin.
“There was no problem during delivery of the baby. The baby who weighed 2.5 kg even cried after birth,” said doctor Shiv Lal Chaudhary who was involved in the delivery adding one in every 10 million has such deformity.
According to him, it was a premature birth as the baby was born after 32 weeks, instead of 36 weeks.
He said he had referred the baby to the Patna Medical College and Hospital for proper medical care.
Doctors believe the probability of survival of such children is rare. This child’s organs are not fully developed either.
“Such infants are prone to various infections because skin is not there to protect them,” a leading Patna-based doctor Dr A.A. Hai told media Sunday.
