Another woman dies after C-section delivery in Rajasthan's Kota, fourth such death in a week

This is the fourth death due to similar reasons. The first two took place at the medical college hospital, while the other two occurred at JK Lone Hospital.

One more woman died at JK Lone Hospital, attached to the Rajasthan government-run Kota Medical College, after developing complications following a Caesarean-section delivery, officials said on Monday, taking the total number of such deaths in the district to four in the last one week.

The woman underwent a C-section on May 7 and gave birth to a baby girl. However, her condition allegedly deteriorated the next day. (Representative Image)

The deceased was identified as Pinki Mahawar (30), a resident of Shriram Nagar. She is the second woman to die following a C-section at the JK Lone Hospital in the last 24 hours. The other two cases were reported from the New Medical College Hospital (NMCH), also attached to the Kota Medical College.

NMCH principal Dr Nilesh Jain said: “This is the fourth death due to similar reasons. The first two deaths took place in the hospital of our medical college while the third and fourth deaths happened on Saturday and Sunday night at the JK Lone Hospital.”

The 30-year-old was admitted to JK Lone Hospital on May 7. Officials said she underwent a C-section that same night and gave birth to a baby girl. However, her condition allegedly deteriorated the following day, and she underwent another surgery and was put on a ventilator.

Her husband, Chandra Prakash, a daily wage labourer, alleged negligence in her treatment and claimed that she wasn’t referred to a higher medical centre until she became critical on May 10. He further claimed that on May 10 around 8.30 pm, staff of JK Lone Hospital shifted her to the NMCH’s super speciality block, where she died during treatment.

Earlier, Priya Mahawar (22) died after developing a kidney infection post C-section in JK Lone Hospital on the intervening night of May 9 and May 10. Before her, two other women, Payal (26) and Jyoti Nayak (19), died on May 5 and May 7, respectively, in the NMCH.

“All of them had similar symptoms of drop in blood pressure, and infections in kidney which caused their death,” Dr Jain said, adding a team from Jaipur’s SMS Hospital is probing the deaths in both facilities.

“They have collected urine and blood samples and sent them to the laboratory to trace the specific reason. It is very unusual how all these women from two hospitals developed similar issues after their C-section,” the NMCH principal said, adding that four other women who are currently being treated at the NMCH “are critical”.

Following the death, the woman’s family, local residents and Congress workers staged a protest. “This is sheer negligence from the hospitals. This is the result of pathetic condition of these government health facilities. We spoke to her relatives. They claimed the doctor ignored her health condition,” said Kota Congress chief Gautam, who goes by a single name. “No autopsy will take place till the doctors are shunted.”

Meanwhile, state health secretary Gayatri Rathore also reached Kota on Monday evening to take stock of the situation.