Doctor in baby death is sacked

A DOCTOR in east China's Jiangsu Province was fired after a new investigation into a five-month-old baby's death found he was playing computer games at work and his dereliction of duty had resulted in the girl's death.

Mao Xiaojun, of Nanjing Children's Hospital, also had his doctor's license cancelled, yesterday's Yangtse Evening Post reported.

The hospital's principal, Fang Ruping, has been given an administrative demerit, and its Party secretary, Jin Funian, was given a serious warning, according to Ding Haiyang, disciplinary committee secretary with Nanjing Public Health Bureau.

The new inquiry team members reviewed hospital videos and checked computer records. They discovered that the doctor had been playing computer games on November 3 when the baby was hospitalized with a severe eye infection. The baby's parents repeatedly asked the doctor to help, but he made only three visits to the sick infant instead of checking her condition every 30 minutes as required, the inquiry found.

The baby died next day.