Chhattisgarh: Pregnant Woman Carried In Cooking Vessel To Reach Hospital, Gives Birth To Still-Born

A pregnant woman was carried in a cooking vessel across a river to reach the community hospital located 15 km away, as she was close-to-term giving birth in Chhattisgar.

The incident occurred on July 13, where the woman gave birth to a stillborn baby a day after reaching the hospital in Bhopalpatnam of Bijapur district in Chhattisgarh, due to alleged negligence of the medical staff, reported The Indian Express.

Woman's husband, Harish Yalam complained the stillbirth was the result of hospital staff waiting for the duty doctor to arrive for hours to treat his wife, Lakshmi Yalam.

Following, show cause notices have been issued to three hospital staff, after the husband lodged a complaint with the block medical officer (BMO) Ajay Ramteke. The investigation is underway and due action will be taken for the same, the officer informed.

However, Harish said he has not heard from the officials to date.

According to the reports, Lakshmi (35) and Harish (33) are residents of Mamidiguda village, about 40 km away from the Bijapur district, and were expecting their first child. They were staying at Lakshmi's parents' home in Minur village since it is closer to the health centre.

Due to the unavailability of transport, the family carried the pregnant woman in a big utensil, with wooden poles across it. They received the ambulance service at Gorla, 43 kms away from the main town and 15 kms from the hospital. They reached in the late afternoon.

Harish said Lakshmi complained of pain to the medical staff, but they kept them waiting for the doctor and were asked to remain patient.

"When Lakshmi started crying in pain, I asked the on-duty staff to refer us to Bijapur, if they couldn't help, but they asked me to stay calm and said childbirth would take place at its time."

Later in the evening, Harish called the nurses after Lakshmi's blood pressure started dropping. "She was in distress, but the nurses started scolding her and pushed her stomach to induce labour."

Suddenly, the nurses stopped and called for the on-duty doctor, Dr Gopi Kishan, who, Harish claimed, had not reported for duty yet. The doctor had arrived around 10.30 pm and operated on Lakshmi, following which she gave birth to a still-born.

Harish blames the hospital authorities for their delay and apathy towards the pregnant woman.

"Dr Kishan said had there been a delay of half-an-hour we could have lost Lakshmi too. Local residents need access to better doctors, who are not negligent, " he added.

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