A woman and her newborn baby have died in Hyderabad allegedly after she was made to run from one hospital to another. The 20-year-old expectant mother visited four hospitals in a matter of two days before she gave birth. She, however, passed away after being shifted to a fifth hospital a day later.
The 20-year-old woman from Gadwal district in Telangana died on Monday night while her one-day old baby boy succumbed to respiratory problems a day earlier.
Taking a serious note of the incident, the State Human Rights Commission directed the state Health and Family Welfare Department to submit a report on the tragic occurrence.
The deceased's husband, Mahender, told reporters that negligence and delay on the part of the doctors at various hospitals to treat her resulted in her death.
He said when the woman started developing labour pains on April 24 (Friday), he rushed her to the Gadwal town hospital from their village but doctors advised them to go to Kurnool town in neighbouring Andhra Pradesh as she was suffering from anaemia and blood pressure.
Though Kurnool is just 50 km from Gadwal, he could not take her there due to the strict enforcement of the lockdown as Kurnool has reported the highest number of COVID-19 cases in Andhra Pradesh
Mahender took his wife to the government hospital in Mahabubnagar, but the doctors there advised them to go to Hyderabad. According to The New Indian Express, Mahender alleged that the doctors at the government hospital in Mahabubnagar were ‘not interested in performing surgery’.
When they approached the government-run maternity hospital at Koti in Hyderabad, the doctors insisted that she undergo COVID-19 test as she is coming from Gadwal, which was declared a red zone due to the large number of infections there. The woman's report returned negative the next day.
She was shifted to the government maternity hospital at Petla Burj, where she gave birth to a baby boy on April 26 (Sunday). The newborn was shifted to the Niloufer Hospital for Children due to respiratory problems. He died the same day.
As the woman's condition turned critical, she was shifted to the Osmania Hospital, where she died on Monday night.