Abandoned by parents, this 'Durga' fights the evil, both inner and outer

LUCKNOW: On Durga Ashtami (Wednesday) when crore of Indian's were worshipping young girls to show their gratitude towards the goddess, a 3-month-old baby girl abandoned by her biological parents was fighting for her mere existence.
Though she was discharged from King George's Medical University (KGMU) on Wednesday after undergoing 79 days of treatment, the trauma of the grossly underweight baby is far from over.
Born to a supposedly underprivileged couple already having three minor daughters, Durga was left by her parents in KGMU where she was referred to hours after birth in Ambedkar Nagar government hospital in the second week of January.
Due to premature birth, she had developed several health complications, including apnea (respiratory distress) and gastrointestinal bleeding. For the next 79 days under the care of a team of medical staff, she fought against odds including bacterial, fungal infections and was even put on ventilator and oxygen support for several days. After such a long treatment, the girl now weighs 1.9 kg. She was discharged on Wednesday from KGMU's pediatric ward under the custody of ChildLine, and they presented her to child welfare committee (CWC).
The CWC ordered the ChildLine to lodge the infant at shelter home in Prag Narayan Road, but the staff refused to take custody of the girl citing that she was still not well and needed medical care. "The infant is immensely underweight, and froth was coming out of her mouth. Since we recently lost four infants at a shelter home, the staff was not ready to take a chance and advised ChildLine to take the infant back to hospital," said district probation officer Lucknow, Vikas Singh.
However, the ChildLine team was assured by KGMU that the infant's health was normal following which they shifted her to an Aliganj-based private orphanage.
Faculty KGMU pediatrics department prof Shalini Tripathi told TOI: "The infant is hemodynamically stable. She can breathe in normal room air, pass stool and urine, and is able to feed on mother's breast milk. She is gaining weight, and there were no fresh health complaints, hence she was discharged and was advised to follow up in OPD."
ChildLine coordinator Vivek Sharma said: "We had no other option, but to shift the infant to any shelter home which was ready to accept her, as doctors had declared her fit, and there was no way to trace her parents."
However, manager of the private orphanage, OP Pathak told TOI, "I took a second opinion from a specialist. The girl is underweight, and the doctor said her limbs are very weak and can develop deformity. Our orphanage hardly receives any funds from the government and we depend on funding from private players, therefore it would be difficult for us to sustain for long."
He said, "Our team will try to take the infant to KGMU if a situation arises, but without funds it would be hard to manage things, as we have other children also to take care of."