Hyderabad:
There was tension at the Hindupur Government Hospital in the Anantpur district of Andhra Pradesh on Wednesday morning with the relatives of a woman sitting on dharna with the body of her newborn baby.
Relatives claim Bharathi came to the hospital past midnight but the duty staff did not admit her and referred her elsewhere as they apprehended complications. Bharathi delivered a baby boy a little before 4 am in the hospital premises, behind a vehicle parked there, with her grandmother helping her deliver. The family says that despite the screams of the pregnant woman, no one from the hospital offered any help.
Doctors who examined the dead baby say that the baby seemed to have suffered injuries because of pressure used during the delivery by an untrained and unqualified woman. They also said that the baby may have even broken a bone.
According to the district medical health officer Mr Venkatramana, gynaecologists at the hospital had examined the woman and apprehended a risky delivery as there was abnormal presentation of the baby. Her expected date of delivery was August 2. They say they would have taken her in for surgery but for the fact that no anaesthetist was available at this 100-bed hospital. The nearest government facility that could handle this would be in Anantpur town or in Bangalore. That is why she was referred to a private hospital in town, according to doctors.
What the inquiry has revealed is that the pregnant woman was not given emergency care nor was the 108 ambulance service used to transport her to a better-equipped centre for safe delivery. Bharathi has a four-year-old first born child.