Pregnant woman dies after delivering twins; denied treatment

Kolkata, Jan 14: In yet another shameful incident of medical negligence from West Bengal, a woman lost her life due to sheer callousness from the part of medical authorities. The woman, who was a street dweller was denied admission to two leading hospitals in the city after she gave birth to twins. The matter has split open the serious flaws in the state-run health service.

The victim was identified as 38-year-old Uma Devi. Denied admission to the hospital, she had to give birth on the pavement. The first of the twins was delivered outside the Chittaranjan Sevasadan, where she was enrolled for check ups during pregnancy. After she was denied admission at the wee hours on Friday morning, she was asked to go to another hospital, that is the Sambhunath Pandit hospital. After being refused admission there too, she had to deliver the second of the twins too in the pavement, close to 90 minutes after the first child was born.

The husband of the deceased stated that they were made to travel to and forth between the two hospitals. The worse part is that the victim possessed a health card issued in the state. It is understood that the Chittaranjan Sevasadan refused her admission and later the Sambhunath Hospital also turned her away saying that she should go back to the first hospital where she was getting treatment. Both the hospitals gave little regard to her plight.

West Bengal Health Director Biswaranjan Satpathy has ordered a probe into the incident and set up a three-member inquiry committee to look into why the woman was denied permission.

A relative of the patient stated that she was admitted to hospital soon after she started getting labour pains which was close to 11-11:30 pm. The second child was delivered 90 minutes later.

This case has exposed the flaws in the state run health service. The health departments have been considerably shamed after the number of infant deaths in the state.

OneIndia News