Two women die after C-section

Deepika Pasham
Hyderabad

Two women died after childbirth in a government-run MN Area Hospital in Malakpet. The families of the two women staged a protest on Friday demanding a probe into the hospital’s functioning. The Chaderghat police registered a case under Section 174 of CrPC and an investigation would begin soon.

The deceased are Sri Venella, (23), and Shivani. Their families said that doctors were negligent while doing surgeries but the hospital rejected the complaints and the Health Ministry announced Rs 5 lakh as ex-gratia to the two families.

The Superintendent of the MN Area hospital said that there was no negligence on the hospital’s part.

“On January 11 we did 10 C–Sections. Everybody was stable till Thursday afternoon and later when one patient experienced a high heartbeat rate. Our gynaecologist shifted her to Gandhi Hospital and there she died. In the second case, the woman was stable till 10 pm and after that, her sugar levels fell. She was also taken to Gandhi Hospital and she died,” said the Superintendent.

On asking why families are complaining about the women the official said, “We clarified because without properly checking medical parameters C-sections are never done by doctors.”

V. Bal Gopal, the Detective Inspector of Chaderghat Police Station, said that a Section 174 CrPC case has been registered and an investigation is underway.

“One woman was admitted on January 9 and another on January 10. On January 11, C-sections were done and one woman gave birth to a boy and the other to a girl.

As Gandhi Hospital informed the family of the first victim that she was suffering from dengue fever and that a C-section cannot be done they developed doubts. Later, they interacted with another woman and decided that the hospital might be at fault and then launched a protest. We are investigating the cases as protests were held. We calmed them and the bodies will be handed over soon.”

Health Commissioner Ajay Kumar said, “We have set up an expert committee to investigate the incident at the Malakpet Government Area Hospital. Action will be taken based on the report given by that committee. Eleven more surgeries were performed on the day of the surgery on them. None of the others had any problems but the dead women had medical problems. We will ensure that such incidents do not happen again in future.”

Meanwhile, the Regional Director of Operations, Venkateshwarlu said, “We spoke to the Health Minister about the incident at the hospital. A compensation of Rs 5 lakh each will be given to the families. We will provide them with more facilities.”