Denied hospital entry, she gave birth in car
Nine months' pregnant, in labour and inside a hospital, yet she delivered a baby boy in a car on Monday morning. Why? Because an on-duty doctor at the state-run district hospital here allegedly refused to admit her. Kapil Datta reports.
Nine months' pregnant, in labour and inside a hospital, yet she delivered a baby boy in a car on Monday morning. Why? Because an on-duty doctor at the state-run district hospital here allegedly refused to admit her.
The doctor, whose identity couldn't be established, had reportedly asked 22-year-old Sangita Devi's family to get either five units of blood in her group or pay R12,000 for her admission. According to the doctor Devi was anaemic.
She and her 50-year-old mother-in-law, who didn't have means to fulfil either condition, had already spent two hours pleading with doctors for an admission.
After being turned down, waiting for a rickshaw outside the hospital, Devi was offered a lift to a private hospital by a local transporter, R. Yadav, who was passing by.
Minutes later, Devi had her boy in Yadav's car.
“The duty doctor asked me to bring five unit of blood or pay Rs 12,000 as my pregnant daughter-in-law was anaemic. When we told them we didn't have any money, they refused to admit her," the mother-in-law said. “They had no right to refuse her the admission. Thanks to a kind person's help, she could deliver."
According to the mother-in-law, Devi, and her baby are "healthy" now.
District hospital's Chief Medical Superintendent Meena Mishra said: "When I came to know of incident on Monday evening, I sent an ambulance to the woman's home. Though I had asked them to get admitted at the hospital, they refused to come."
"No money was demanded by any staff. The procedure for blood is that we give the blood sample of patients their relatives to get blood of that type from any blood bank," she said.
Gautam Budh Nagar's District Magistrate Deepak Aggarwal has ordered a probe into the allegation of negligence against the district hospital doctor. "I have ordered an inquiry into the incident. The guilty staff will get punished," he said.