In what would give every parent the chills, a new-born was left in agonising pain for almost a month after an errant vaccination centre in Panvel left a needle inside its hip. According to a report in the mid-day, the parents Jairaj and Aastha Gaikwad, residents of Chembur, noticed that their new-born was unwell 19 days after vaccination. There was a swelling at the site of the vaccination, and the child was suffering from a fever that wasn’t abating. The baby was also constantly bawling in pain.

The panicky parents took the child to a paediatrician who performed an X-ray and an ultrasound to detect the problem. Although the tests showed that there was a bone infection at the child’s hip joint, the doctor couldn’t detect the foreign object lodged inside. The parents were then referred to Wadia Hospital in Parel.

Initially, the baby was treated for the infection, which had developed in the hip joint. “When his fever refused to subside, we decided to carry out a CT scan, which finally revealed the needle in the left button,” Dr Pradnya Bendre told mid-day. While studying the child’s medical history, the doctors suspected that an intramuscular vaccine injection might be responsible.

But extracting the needle wasn’t easy, mainly because the doctors couldn’t locate the exact location where it was lodged. They had to take multiple X-rays to determine its exact position. "The needle had gone deep inside, and it was extremely challenging to perform the surgery on a newborn without making a big incision. Thankfully, the child was diagnosed without much delay. We want to highlight the issue so that such a blunder is not repeated in the future," said Dr Minnie Bodhanwala CEO Wadia Hospitals told the publication.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jul 20, 2018 07:15 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).