Ghaziabad:
Doctors at the District Women Hospital in Ghaziabad had to perform the delivery of a suspected Covid-19 patient while wearing personal protection equipment (PPE) meant for protection against HIV, officials said. The hospital did not have any PPE kit that is used during treatment of a Covid-19 patient, they said.
The 27-year-old woman is presently lodged in an isolation room of the hospital, and her samples were sent for testing on Sunday. The woman delivered a baby who is her third child, the officials said.
“The woman, having mild labour pain, had come to the hospital with respiratory infection and fever. On Saturday afternoon, we sent her in an ambulance to the sampling centre at Sanjay Nagar hospital twice, but she was turned back from there. In the meantime, she went into labour and we decided to take her to the operation theatre. We had no PPE kits meant for protection against Covid-19, so we decided to go ahead with delivery with the help of kit meant for protection against HIV,” said Dr Deepa Tyagi, medical superintendent of the hospital.
“During the delivery, there were three staff members inside. We had to take a decision in order to save her life, and would have faced complications,” she added.
{{/usCountry}}“During the delivery, there were three staff members inside. We had to take a decision in order to save her life, and would have faced complications,” she added.
{{/usCountry}}However, Dr NK Gupta, Ghaziabad chief medical officer (CMO), said that there were about 2,000 PPE kits available in the district till Sunday.
“The hospital officials should have taken the kits from our department. Also, there is a separate budget which is allotted for purchase of kits to all the three government hospitals in Ghaziabad. Meanwhile, directions have been issued that such women patients, if tested positive for Covid-19, should undergo delivery only at OT of dedicated Covid hospital. Such provision is available at our L2 category hospital at Sanjay Nagar,” Gupta said.
The CMO said that he will inquire why the samples of the woman was not taken up at the sampling centre on Saturday afternoon. The sampling centre at the Sanjay Nagar hospital was inaugurated earlier this month for taking samples of suspected Covid-19 cases.
The state government has already said that all the Covid and non-Covid hospitals should be properly sanitized in order to keep away any medical infection. For the purpose of inspection and audit of hospitals, the state government has directed for formation of committees in all districts of the state.