Medical Negligence Endangers Lives of Two Pregnant Women

A woman was forced to deliver her baby on a bus after she was denied an ambulance by the local health centre.

Two separate cases surfaced where the lack of an ambulance for pregnant women exposed the lack of proper health facilities in the country.

The Quint

Video Editor: Abhishek Sharma

Two cases of medical negligence emerged one after the other, once again exposing the lack of proper health facilities for women.

In Chhatarpur, Madhya Pradesh, a woman was forced to deliver her baby on a bus, after the local health centre denied her transportation facilities to the hospital.

I had admitted my wife to the community hospital. They kept her for one night but did not look after her. The next morning, they asked her to be transferred to Chhattarpur but said that they had no mode of transport to transfer her. We boarded a bus and my wife delivered on the bus itself. I asked for some mode of transportation but the hospital said I would have to make my own arrangements.

Bhagirath, Husband

BS Bajpai, Chief Medical & Health Officer (CMHO), promised that strict action would be taken against those responsible. “If a case of negligence comes to light, then we will investigate the case and punish those responsible,” he said.

Meanwhile, in Jashpur, Chhattisgarh, a woman delivered a still-born baby because an ambulance could not reach her on time.

My husband tried calling 102 and 108. But we could not contact them. When we finally managed to contact the ambulance, it couldn’t come due to the condition of the roads. We booked a car to go to the hospital, but even that got stuck for about 2 hours.

Lilavati, victim

However, the hospital denied all charges, saying they had no information that 108 had been called by the family. “They did not call 108 or 102. They had asked someone from the village to take them to the community health centre,” said Harishankar Patel, Assistant Medical Officer.

(With inputs from ANI)