University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital (UPTH) has denied death of 14 babies in its facility due to power outage.
Online reports had, on Saturday, claimed 14 babies died at the hospital, including twin babies of a woman, who was childless after seven years of marriage.
But the Acting Public Relations Officer of the hospital, Elabha Alexandra Meni, described the report as false, saying it was targeted at tarnishing the image of the hospital.
In a statement issued in reaction to the report, the hospital’s spokesman, said: “UPTH a known centre for Excellence, a citadel of training, research and healthcare delivery.
“University of Port-Harcourt Teaching Hospital is an institution, where world’s best medical standards are practised and maintained. Which also has helped made the institution one of the best medical centres in the South-South and Nigeria at large.
“However, it is quite saddening that certain persons try to tarnish the image of the hospital by spreading false messages and information that are inaccurate.
Our attention has been drawn to a story of the 14 to 19 babies dying in the hospital. This is not correct.”
He added: “We did not record any infant mortality in our SCBU (inborn and outborn) as a result of our electrical power outage, due to faulty transformer, during which the standby generator serviced the hospital for the period, with all emergency areas fully powered. Surgeries were never cancelled, neither were our services disrupted”
He said the management of UPTH frowns seriously on such scandalous social media propaganda damaging the hospital’s image, stating that it remained committed to serving to humanity.
