In a tragic incident in Mandya, a 24-year-old woman, Sonu, gave birth to a child in front of the Mandya Institute of Medical Sciences Hospital. She was reportedly 29 weeks pregnant. While the mother is safe, the baby died at birth. The family has accused the hospital of denying admission in the maternity ward, asking for a COVID-19 test first. The hospital authorities, however, have denied the allegation.
“We had come to the hospital for treatment and tests on Tuesday. They asked us to come back today for admission,” Ismail, the woman’s husband, told the media. “We came at around 7 am and were told to do a COVID-19 test before admission but the counter was closed. When we were waiting outside, my wife went into labour and delivered. The child did not survive,” he added.
Dr Savitha who heads the Maternity department at MIMS told Times Now, “Yesterday, after a scan, it was found that the baby had no heartbeat. We had advised Sonu to get admitted immediately but she did not return till today morning when her abdomen started paining”. Denying allegations that Sonu was not given attention, the doctor said, “We have to test the patients for COVID-19 so we can allot the wards accordingly. We administered the Rapid Antigen Test (RAT) and since the patient’s attenders were not with her, we were waiting to admit her. The patient went out on her own to give her earrings to a family member”.
While the family has alleged that they waited for over two hours since morning, the hospital staff say that the RAT was already administered to her and the admission was delayed because the family members were not around.
Just after the news broke out, local citizens as well as families of other patients staged a protest demanding accountability. No police complaint has been filed in the case so far.