Eight lactating mothers who delivered babies in the past few days at the district super-speciality hospital in Balurghat fell sick after they were administered injections on Friday.

The women, who manifested symptoms like intense shivering and respiratory distress, were shifted to the critical care unit of the hospital on Friday night and Saturday morning.

Sukanta Majumdar, the Balurghat MP and the Union minister of state for education, expressed concern over the women's condition and recollected a similar incident at the Midnapore Medical College and Hospital, where one woman had died and some others had fallen sick after some medicines were injected into them.

Sources said six of the eight women had delivered their children on Tuesday, while the other two had delivered babies a couple of days earlier.

“Amikacin injection, which is usually injected to prevent infection in the uterus and post-caesarian infection, was administered to the eight women on Friday. Soon after, they fell sick,” said a source.

A total of 70 women were in the labour ward of the hospital on Friday.

Senior health department officials, including Sudip Das, the chief medical officer of health (CMOH), South Dinajpur, reached the hospital.

“All eight women are stable but under treatment. We have formed a three-member medical board to treat the women. A 10-member committee has been constituted to probe the case. A clear instruction has been given to ensure that the particular batch is not used at the hospital to give the amikacin injection. We are checking out whether their health conditions deteriorated because of the injection or some other infection,” said Das.

“We have also sterilised the operation theatre and samples from there, as well as samples of the injection have been sent for necessary tests,” the CMOH added.

Supporters of the BJP and the CPM reached the district hospital and demonstrated in front of the superintendent’s office. A delegation of BJP leaders met the patients. The RSP, on the other hand, staged a road blockade in front of the hospital.

“Multiple pregnant women admitted to this state-run facility developed severe complications after being administered a specific injection. This is not an isolated case. In a chillingly similar incident, a pregnant woman tragically lost her life at Medinipur Medical College just weeks ago. Yet, the Chief Minister and her Trinamool government chose to evade accountability and cover up the matter with theatrics and diversion,” Majumdar wrote on X.

“Today, I demand immediate attention from the West Bengal government regarding this alarming situation. The @wbdhfw Secretary must submit a detailed explanation within the next 24 hours, clearly stating the cause and circumstances behind this medical lapse. If this turns out to be another repeat of the Medinipur incident, the Chief Minister @MamataOfficial must be held directly accountable, whose failure to safeguard Bengal’s crumbling healthcare system is now endangering the lives of pregnant women,” added the BJP leader.

District Trinamool leaders, however, accused the Balurghat BJP MP of playing politics. “The women are under treatment and we hope they will recover in due course. The MP is politicising the incident as the BJP has become politically bankrupt and could not find proper issues,” said a senior Trinamool functionary in Balurghat.