Another woman delivers baby in open on Surat hospital campus

An eight-month pregnant woman on Thursday gave birth to a baby girl in the open on the campus of the New Civil Hospital (NCH) in Surat but the newborn girl died soon after birth.

This is the second incident within a week of a woman giving birth to a baby in the open at the NCH, Surat. Another woman, Ramdulari Parmar, had given birth to twins (a boy and a girl) outside the hospital on Tuesday; the baby boy later died.

On Thursday, the hapless woman, Hasinabibi Munna, gave birth to the baby girl in the presence of her eight-year-old son who had accompanied her to the hospital. There was no one to help her when the incident happened. By the time the woman was admitted to the hospital, it was too late as the baby girl had died soon after birth.

Hasinabibi, a resident of Mithi-khadi in Limbayat, had gone to the NCH on Thursday morning with her eight-year-old son, Mohammad Shafiq. She was complaining of severe pain. She first went to the gynaecology ward where, after examining her, the doctors on duty asked that sonography be done on her immediately as her condition was serious.

She was taken to the sonography department of the hospital where the staff allegedly refused to conduct the sonography and asked her to come on March 15. Hasinabibi pleaded about her critical condition but her appeals fell on deaf ears. She left to return home.

But when she arrived near the medical store of Chhaydo Trust (a few meters ahead of the emergency ward) with her son, she began moaning with pain. Unable to bear it any longer, she sat down on the ground and delivered a baby girl without anyone to assist her.

Passersby rushed to help her and got her admitted to the emergency ward. The doctors there immediately began treatment of mother and child. While the condition of Hasinabibi is said to be normal, the doctors could not save her baby girl which had died soon after birth.

"They [the staff in the sonography department] told me that appointments till March 14 were full and so they could not conduct the test on me. I told them I was in great pain but they asked me to consult a doctor and get some medicine," Hasinabibi said.

On learning of the incident, NCH superintendent MK Wadhel rushed to emergency ward. He made an assessment of the incident and later went to the gynaecology department. He is reported to have scolded the staff there for being negligent but took no action against the staff of the sonography department.   

"Doctors in the gynaecology department should have written 'Urgent', on the case papers of Hasinabibi. That would have helped her in getting sonography done quickly. There is a continuous flow of patients for sonography while our resources are limited. So we give prior appointment to patients," Wadhel said. Originally from Rajtola village in Nawada district of Bihar, Hasinabibi is a housewife. Her husband works as a painter.