Hospital staffers didn’t respond to her cries. Woman delivers her own baby

A 23-year-old woman admitted to the city government medical college and hospital ended up delivering her baby without medical assistance early on Monday after hospital staffers did not respond to her cries for help.

Sukeshni Shrikant Chatare, 23, a resident of Hudkeshwar in south Nagpur locality, had been under treatment at the government hospital right from the beginning of her pregnancy. It was her first.

On Saturday evening, she was hospitalized on Saturday evening as her due date was approaching. Initially, she was made to lie down on the floor. When her relatives complained with senior officials, she did get a bed in the hospital’s gynaecology ward.

According to her relatives, her labour pains started on Sunday evening and she was taken to delivery ward. But when the pains eased, the doctors left the ward.

Sukeshni was alone in the delivery ward past midnight when the pains started again. She cried for help that eventually woke up a relative of another patient. This person found the baby’s head coming out of the womb and asked Sukeshni to pull out the baby. Initially she refused to do so, but when she was unable to bear the pain, she somehow pulled the baby out, her relatives said.

Later, when Sukeshni’s mother arrived there, she woke up the nurses on duty who then cut the umbilical cord and told the woman to sleep on floor along with her new-born baby, not the bed.

The patient was still on the floor with her new-born on Monday morning when her relatives again complained to the gynaecology department head. She got a bed, again.

Sukeshni’s husband, Srikant, demanded punishment for the doctors and nurses for their ‘casual approach’ on the issue. “I have lodged a formal complaint with the medical administration in this regard,” he said.

NG Tirpude, the acting dean of medical college, says the incident was “unfortunate” and ordered an inquiry. “We have set up a three-member committee to probe and told them to submit the report as soon as possible,” he informed.

The hospital’s Dean Tirpude said the hospital would take appropriate action against the persons concerned after getting the report.