Or Jamnaben Vasava, who delivered a healthy child at the same hospital. She even received a parting gift: gastroenteritis, caused by infections picked up while at hospital.

However, they are luckier than the 50-odd patients who succumb every week to what is known as Hospital-Acquired Infections. Many more die due to delayed treatment from paramedics and experts and lack of functional diagnostic equipment such as X-ray machines.

The saddest part is, most such cases can be avoided. SSG is renowned for the expertise of its staff and the breadth of its facilities. It is the hospital of choice for most of the 1500 patients admitted every day, and not just because treatment is, by and large, free. What seems to be the diagnosis here is a typical government hospital run in a haphazard manner with scant thought for the patients.

Take, for example, the atrocious state of hygiene. Stinking drains and lavatories, crowded and dirty wards; even the operation theatres are not always immune. And those sauntering through the wards could even be of the four-legged variety, as shown in the picture. Any wonder, then, that infections claim so many lives?

Microbiologists and pathologists at the hospital have records of the alarming number of patients falling prey to HAI, but the authorities, while expressing concern, say there is little that has been done. And the buck-passing begins, among consultants, surgeons, students, administrators, nurses and ward boys.

Little do they know, however, that if anywhere a deadly epidemic is in the making, it is at S S G Hospital, and also that for this tragic state of affairs, each of them is almost equally responsible.

Medical Superintendent Kirit Sheth blames the garbage -- which attracts the animals -- on visitors and patient parties. On HAI, he says the hospital has a committee of experts checking it; he does admit, though, that the action taken was not enough to deal with the situation at hand.

Sheth does, however, have a plan of action to improve conditions. ``We have formed a Medical Audit Committee to detect in-house infections and better and quicker fumigation and de-infections of the entire hospital. We are also replacing stretchers with better ones and constructing about 30 new units of toilets for each ward, and separating the existing ones from the wards,'' he says. The problem here, he says, is that only about 400 of the 742 class IV staff actually report for duty because of one reason or the other.

Vadodara Municipal Corporation deputy commissioner H S Patel acknowledges the fact that even pigs, dogs and other stray cattle frequent S S G Hospital and other government health units. ``We are trying our level best, acting on each and every call, but we have so many emergencies to attend to in 108-sq-km VMC limits' jurisdiction'', he admits.

However, that does not seem to be enough to revive SSG. One simple indicator of its status is the number of admissions of patients from well-off families. The logic is simple: Those who have the means go elsewhere. That said, SSG still commands high respect among the poorer sections of society, for whom it is a lifeline. Somewhere along the line, however, that trust seems to have been betrayed.