Woman, child die after delivery, irate kin allege medical negligence

Tension prevailed at the Ramanathapuram government hospital on Saturday after irate relatives of a 23-year-old woman staged a protest at the premises alleging medical negligence to have caused her death as well as her newborn’s soon after delivery.

The deceased woman was identified as Keerthiga, resident of a village in Paramakudi. Angered by the death of the mother and the newborn, Keerthiga’s relatives protested in front of the hospital alleging medical negligence to have caused their deaths. They sought necessary action against the doctor concerned for the deaths.

When contacted on the incident, the Ramanathapuram Joint Director of Health Services, P. Venkatachalam, citing a preliminary investigation report said that Keerthiga died due to hypersensitive reaction to a drug which he said was otherwise normally used to induce labour in pregnant women. Her death occurred around 2.30 am, a few hours after she delivered a male baby weighing 2.8 kilograms. The baby could have died during the labour, sources said.

The pregnant woman was reportedly admitted to the hospital around 7 pm on Friday with complaint of stomach pain. Initially, her health had deteriorated but she soon recovered. However, the patient’s condition again deteriorated and she passed away, sources said.

According to Ramanathapuram Deputy Director of Health Services P Kumaragurubaran, anaphylaxis, a severe allergic reaction, could have caused Keerthiga’s death. It was a normal delivery after medicines were administered to the patient to make her uterus shrink. After delivering the baby, the patient was kept on ventilator support for around two hours, he added.

Earlier, the patient underwent health check-up at regular intervals where the results showed her haemoglobin level to be normal. The woman patient last consulted a primary health centre doctor on December 3, the Deputy Director of Health Services said. After the patient developed pain, she rang up the primary health centre and the doctor, in turn, informed the patient to take the help of a village health nurse, who then directed Keerthiga to get admitted to the government hospital, he added.