Karachi: At least 315 newborn babies have died at the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit of Civil Hospital Mithi since January this year, according to the hospital’s own verified records, highlighting the continued burden of critical neonatal illness and preventable risks in Tharparkar and surrounding districts.
The figure was released by the hospital administration while rejecting media reports that 480 newborns had died at the facility over an eight-month period. However, the official data confirms that hundreds of critically ill newborns did not survive despite being admitted to the hospital’s NICU.
According to the records, 3,535 newborns were admitted to the NICU from January 1, 2026, to date. Of these, 2,819 babies recovered and were discharged, while 328 critically ill newborns were referred to better-equipped health facilities for specialised treatment.
Another 73 newborns left the hospital against medical advice, the administration said. The data shows that deaths accounted for nearly nine percent of all NICU admissions during the period.
The hospital said 250 of the 315 newborns who died belonged to Tharparkar district, while 65 were referred from outside districts, including Mirpurkhas, Badin and Umerkot.
According to the administration, many of the referred babies reached Mithi in an extremely critical condition, with serious complications and a low chance of survival. It did not provide a breakdown of the medical causes of death, including premature birth, birth asphyxia, sepsis, pneumonia, low birth weight, congenital abnormalities or malnutrition-related complications.
The deaths nevertheless underline the severe pressure on newborn care services in one of Sindh’s most impoverished and geographically difficult regions, where pregnant women and newborns frequently face delayed access to skilled delivery care, emergency transport, blood transfusion facilities and specialised treatment.
Tharparkar has long faced high levels of poverty, malnutrition, poor maternal health and limited access to quality healthcare. Families from remote desert villages often travel long distances to reach Mithi, while complicated cases are referred further to hospitals in Hyderabad and Karachi.
The official figures also show that the Mithi NICU is not serving Tharparkar alone but is receiving critically ill newborns from neighbouring districts, placing additional pressure on its staff, beds, equipment and referral system.
Hospital authorities said the figures of 480 deaths reported by sections of the media had not been provided by any official of Civil Hospital Mithi and were inconsistent with its records.
They said an internal review had found that the reported figures did not match the hospital’s verified NICU data. The administration urged media organisations to confirm health-related statistics with the relevant medical authorities before publication.
But the dispute over the exact number does not change the seriousness of the official death toll. The loss of 315 newborn lives in less than a year demands a transparent review of why babies are reaching the NICU in critical condition, whether they are receiving timely treatment, and what gaps exist in maternity, neonatal and referral services.
Public-health experts have repeatedly stressed that many newborn deaths can be prevented through quality antenatal care, skilled births, immediate resuscitation, infection prevention, early treatment of sepsis and pneumonia, safe referral arrangements and properly staffed newborn intensive-care units.
The provincial health department needs to make public a detailed audit of the deaths, including their causes, the condition in which babies reached the hospital, availability of incubators, ventilators, oxygen, medicines and trained staff, as well as the time taken to refer critically ill newborns to larger facilities.
Such an audit is necessary not merely to settle a dispute over statistics, but to identify whether gaps in care, delayed referrals, poverty, malnutrition or shortages of services are costing newborn lives in Tharparkar and adjoining districts.