Gurgaon: A 25-year-old
woman delivered a baby in the open, right in front of the
emergency ward of General
Hospital on Friday, after she was sent off by a doctor to get an ultrasound done before admission and the test was denied in the absence of an Aadhaar card.
She writhed in excruciating pain for almost two hours without any medical care and attention. Finally, she gave birth to a girl in a cycle stand as a group of women, mainly relatives and attendants of other patients, came to her rescue and made a curtain by using
bed sheets and shawls. Thankfully, the mother, Munni, and the child did not face any prenatal or postnatal complications.
Later in the day, as the news spread, the chief medical officer suspended a doctor and a staff nurse for denying an immediate admission to the
pregnant woman and sending her for a test that was not crucial at that moment considering her conditions.
Munni's ordeal began around 9am after she experienced labour pain and her husband, Bablu (28), brought her to General Hospital in Civil Lines.
The couple, who are from Madhya Pradesh and currently live in Old Gurgaon's Sheetla Colony area, already have a two-year-old son.
She was taken straight to the emergency ward, where on-duty medical officer Dr Mohini checked her and realised that the woman had not seen any doctor during the entire pregnancy period. So, the doctor asked Munni to get an ultrasound done first.
Ideally, as other doctors pointed out, the woman should have been sent to the labour room immediately for delivery as she was due any moment.
As instructed, the couple, accompanied by staff nurse Manita, went to the ultrasound centre on the hospital premises. But there was more trouble waiting for her there. Dr Ekta Maan, the radiologist who conducts the test, asked the patient to produce her Aadhaar card.
"I had the UID (
Unique Identity) number but the hospital staff insisted on seeing the original card too for registering the patient. I requested them to accept the voter card, which I had on me then, but they didn't budge. I couldn't leave my wife unattended and go home to fetch the Aadhaar card," said Bablu.
Munni suffered in pain but the hospital staff expressed their helplessness as they had to "abide by the rules".
This torment continued till around 11am when the woman had a normal delivery in most distressing and unhygienic conditions.
Even after the delivery, the mother and the child remained lying in the open for about 20 minutes, until some nurses inside the hospital heard about the delivery and took them to the labour room.
Taking note of the 'medical negligence', the health department ordered an inquiry into the matter and suspended medical officer Dr Mohini, who had sent the woman for an ultrasound, and staff nurse Manita, who had accompanied her to the ultrasound centre.
"The situation called for an immediate delivery. But she was sent away for an ultrasound test by Dr Mohini. Also, the initial examination is to be done by the staff nurse to see if the woman is in labour. Instead, Manita took her for the ultrasound test and displayed no urgency even as the woman was in full labour. This delay could have been fatal. So, after the primary investigation, both of them have been suspended," said Dr Pradeep Sharma, principal medical officer, Gurgaon.
However, the department has not taken any action as yet against Dr Maan as the woman or her husband hasn't filed any complaint regarding the Aadhaar/identity card issue. "Aadhaar card is needed for an ultrasound as a proof of identity. But here, we have only 43% patients who submit it. So, we accept other identity cards too and that is how the remaining 57% avail the treatment here. It (not having an Aadhaar) shouldn't have been an issue this time either. We are investigating this too," Sharma added.
The woman delivered in front of the hospital's emergency ward
