Woman denied admission in Giridih hospital, delivers on road

DHANBAD: A 25-year-old pregnant woman was forced to give birth outside Giridih Sadar hospital, after being denied prescribed tests in the pathological lab late on Sunday evening. The victim and her relatives have now accused hospital authorities for gross mismanagement in the hospital.
Mamta Devi (25), a resident of Taratand, alleged that she was denied admission in private hospitals as well, when they learnt she had no money.
The incident came to light after social worker, Ramesh Yadav and CPI (ML) activist Rajesh Sinha found Mamta delivering her baby along the main road, near Bangla school at Makatpur chowk.
The duo took her to Giridih Sadar hospital and urged authorities concerned to admit her.
While district collector Umashankar Singh could not be contacted, sub-divisional magistrate Namita Kumari said she was not aware about the incident. "I am not aware about the incident as nobody had complained to us in this regard. If it is true, we will talk to the civil surgeon and will act accordingly", she said.
"There may be certain issues that forced the pregnant woman to leave the hospital premises all of a sudden, but she was scared of a possible surgery as she had already undergone a similar operation during her first delivery. As such, the doctor simply advised her mandatory tests before going for further procedure," District malaria officer Dr Kamleshwar Prasad, who is also in-charge of civil surgeon, said, adding all prescribed tests were available in the hospital lab but the lab was closed being a Sunday.
"This is a big question that despite availability of a SRL unit and a well maintained pathological lab within the hospital premises, the patient had to go outside to conduct the tests. We have asked the authorities concerned to enquire into the matter and submit a report as soon as possible", Prasad said.
"Neither did she allow us to examine her nor did she follow our advice. Soon after we asked her about possible operation and advised almost 10-12 mandatory tests, she along with her husband left the hospital without giving proper information to the concerned authorities", Dr Sanjana Sharma, who attended the patient in Sadar hospital said, adding the condition of both the mother and the infant was stable.
"This is gross negligence by the hospital management. All are blaming each other. The most important point is that nobody is here to speak about how and why the woman left the hospital just for normal tests despite her severe labour pain", said CPI (ML) activist, Rajesh Sinha.
"None of the hospitals listened to her genuine pleas, whether these tests were available in the hospital or not. We had to move to a private hospital where we were asked a sum of Rs 35,000 in a Makatpur based nursing home. My wife gave birth to a male child beside the road", said husband Ajay Ram.