Protest at Gurugram’s Civil Hospital as mother and newborn die, kin allege negligence

Family members of a 22-year-old woman, who passed away after her newborn baby allegedly died during delivery at the Civil Hospital, protested on Thursday morning alleging medical negligence on part of the authorities.

The victim’s family alleged that a delay in arrival of an ambulance led to her death. The deceased, identified as Neha, was a resident of Sirhol village near Sector 18 and hailed from Farrukhabad in Uttar Pradesh.

Doctors at the hospital denied the allegations, saying that the protest was spurred by ‘momentary rage’ and the woman died after she suffered ‘fits’.

Civil surgeon at Civil Hospital Dr Gulshan Arora said the patient, a homemaker, was brought to the hospital at 6.40am with labour pains.

“She was having fits and had high blood pressure when she was admitted. She had an assisted delivery as the fits continued. The baby died shortly after birth due to ‘gasping’ and attempts to resuscitate were futile,” Dr Arora said.

He added, “As the woman’s fits continued, we were planning to refer her to Safdarjung hospital in Delhi, but she became breathless and died around 10.20am.”

Doctors said that though no written complaint was received from the woman’s family, a committee had been constituted to probe allegations of medical negligence, if any.

“A maternal death audit, as the protocol dictates, would also be conducted,” Dr Arora said.

The victim’s husband, Rajesh, who works as a security guard at a mall in the city, alleged that his wife was referred to the Safdarjung hospital in Delhi. He added that she died after she was left unattended at the hospital for 45 minutes, while they waited for an ambulance to arrive .

Civil Hospital – the district’s largest government hospital – gets more than 3,000 patients every day, but officials said there is a serious shortage of staff and lack of equipment. As per the data obtained from the health department, the hospital only has four ambulances to transport referral cases.

Till April, the hospital had referred 400 pregnant women to other hospitals, mainly Safdarjung in New Delhi. In 2017, this number was 3,904.

Deliveries in ambulances at Civil Hospital have also become common over the past few months. According to the hospital staff, deliveries in ambulances have been taking place as the number of referrals by the hospital is high.

On April 25, 2017, 29-year-old Sonia Dhull, a resident of Daulatabad village in Pataudi, delivered a baby in the ambulance in the premises of Civil Hospital, allegedly due to a delay in ambulance services. A few days after this incident, another woman gave birth to a boy in an ambulance near the Sirhaul toll plaza on the Delhi-Gurgaon national highway after doctors at the government hospital referred her to Safdarjung Hospital.

On May 1, parents of a newborn baby, residents of Kapashera, had alleged medical negligence at Civil Hospital, saying their baby was born in breech position, and could have been saved if the doctors had attended to the mother on time and informed them of the baby’s condition.

On April 19, a six-month pregnant woman had delivered a baby in the hospital’s toilet after waiting for a doctor to attend to her for almost an hour.

First Published: Aug 03, 2018 11:04 IST