Kalyansinghpur: Pregnant women delivering on their way to hospitals due to bad roads or poor ambulance services is not new in Rayagada district. However, a wrong diagnosis by a government gynaecologist Monday forced an expecting mother to deliver her baby under a roadside tree.
She was identified as Indumati Bachha, wife of Abhimanyu Bachha, of Poligaon village under Sunakhandi panchayat.
Abhimanyu contacted ASHA Pratima Nayak after his wife experienced labour pain. With no government ambulance in sight, the family hired an auto-rickshaw to take her to the local community health centre, 18 km from the village.
The doctor administered her treatment and asked the attendants that they shift the patient to Rayagada to avail better healthcare.
Meanwhile, the family didn’t find a vehicle to reach Rayagada due to a ‘Hartal’ by the ruling party.
Left with no option, they boarded the same auto-rickshaw to return to their village so that they can take her to the district headquarters hospital (DHH). However, after a few minutes of leaving the CHC, Indumati delivered the baby girl under a roadside tree near Kaniguda.
They returned to the CHC along with the mother and the newborn. Though the doctor attended to the two, their condition didn’t improve.
While the woman was profusely bleeding, the newborn was stated to be in critical condition. The CHC authorities, somehow, managed to send them to the DHH.
Questions are being raised as to how the doctor, who first attended to the woman, couldn’t diagnose that delivery time was close. Locals demanded a probe alleging medical negligence. PNN
