Father of a 4 month old child lodge a complaint on the 16th, with the Kuliyapitiya police head quarters that his infant daughter died after the vaccination given in the by the Hettipola Health Medical Officer’s office. (Sri Lanka Latest News)
The deceased was an infant named Nimnadi Senanayake Wickramaarachchila who was a resident of Kuliapitiya, Upper Gomugomuwa area.
According to the police, the complainant says that he went to the Hettipola Health Medical Officer’s office and returned home after giving his daughter the vaccine that will be given in four months on the 15th.
It is said in the police complaint that the girl’s father made a complaint to the police that the child was without any discomfort that day and the next day i.e. on the 16th at around 4.30 in the morning, phlegm started pouring from her mouth and she was suffering from difficulty in breathing.
The complainant told the police that after being admitted to the primary care unit of Kuliapitiya Teaching Hospital, the doctors checked and informed that the infant daughter had died.
The body of the deceased infant girl has been taken to the Kurunegala Teaching Hospital for post-mortem examination.
The father mentioned that a nurse told him to stay there for twenty minutes after giving the vaccine, and his wife came home with the girl as she did not show any symptoms.
He requested the health authorities to conduct a formal inquiry into the infant daughter’s death.
Meanwhile, a spokesman of the Hettipola Health Medical Officer office said that ten children, including the deceased four-month-old infant, were given the same vaccine on the fifteenth and they did not develop any complications or symptoms.
In an inquiry to Kurunegala Divisional Health Services Director Dr. Pramita Shantilatha, she said that the child was given a vaccine by the Hettipola Health Medical Officer’s office on the relevant day, but it cannot be said that the vaccine caused the child’s death.
The doctor said that a post-mortem examination will be conducted by the expert forensic medical officer at the Kurunegala Teaching Hospital to find the exact cause of death, and after the completion of the post-mortem examination, it will be possible to find the exact cause of death.
