Two senior doctors and a midwife wrongly declared a baby girl stillborn and placed her in a morgue freezer even though they knew that she was still alive.
Despite seeing the child’s leg move, the hospital medics refused to save her as she had already been registered as stillborn, a Kazakhstan court ruled.
The three of them were guilty of deliberately killing the child to hide their negligence, said state investigator Askarbek Ermukashev.
According to evidence presented at the trial, the senior doctors and the midwife had talked about drowning the baby in water but decided to leave the baby in the freezer.
One of the medics was heard saying: “May God forgive us” during a recorded phone call in which the doctors discussed the situation.
The child had shown signs of life despite being wrongfully registered as stillborn but the doctors at Atyrau regional perinatal center refused to save the child even though experts said she could have lived.
The head physician Kuanysh Nysanbaev who ordered that the child should be placed in the freezer for the deceased even though he knew that her leg had moved was sentenced to 18 years in prison.
Obstetrician-gynecologist Askar Kairzhan was jailed for 16 years and midwife Jamilya Kulbatyrova was sentenced to 15 years.
The incident was only discovered when detectives had bugged Nysanbaev’s phone as part of a separate investigation.
Anti-corruption police chief Shyngys Kabdula said: “After birth, the baby was negligently registered as stillborn, while in fact she was still alive.
“After the child gave signs of life, the doctors, instead of taking urgent measures, decided to act according to paperwork already issued saying the child was stillborn.”
“He talked about the baby on the phone….The baby died in the refrigerator,” he added.
Deputy health minister Lyazzat Aktayeva said: “I apologize to the family, to the other of the child.”
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