Hyderabad: In an incident of shocking negligence by the Nacharam ESI hospital staff, two newborns were placed on a single stretcher. The staff was later unable to establish their identity much to the distress of the mothers.

The parents of the baby boys, who were delivered at ESI Hospital in Nacharam, accused the hospital authorities of swapping the newborns. The hospital administration said that there was no baby swap and it was just a case of ‘mismanagement of the name tag’, but the parents remained unconvinced.

Chaos prevailed at the hospital on Thursday as parents and their relatives protested demanding an immediate redressal of their grievance. The hospital officials said that they would start the process of collecting samples to conduct DNA tests on Friday, the results of which will take at least two months.

The mothers of the babies, Manisha of Kapra and Akhila of AS Rao Nagar, gave birth to the infants on Wednesday. According to the usual protocol, the babies were given tags, which is tied to their wrists, displaying the mother’s name.

Trouble started when Akhila and her husband, Siva Kumar, realised that the name tag of their baby, instead of having Akhila’s name had Manisha’s name. And, the baby that was handed to Manisha also bore the same name tag. the problem hit a dead-end because of the fact that both the babies were boys.

“This was a clear mistake on the part of the ayah. The error was immediately identified and the tags were corrected. However, the parents are not convinced with this. A DNA test will solve the issue,” said deputy superintendent, ESI Nacharam, Dr. I. Suresh.

The parents alleged that it was sheer negligence on the part of the authorities and this was indeed a case of baby swapping. “The staff here took our infant for vaccination and returned with another baby. We want the DNA tests carried out at the earliest as we are sure this is not our baby,” demanded Siva Kumar.

Hospital authorities said that the blood tests were done on Wednesday, which revealed that both the infants were with the ‘right’ mothers.

“By mistake, wrong names were mentioned in both the tags but the babies were not swapped. But we are conducting DNA tests to convince the parents beyond all doubts,” the hospital authorities said.