31 December,2010 08:16 AM IST | | M Pavitra and Alifiya Khan
After woman delivers stillborn, family alleges delay by Jehangir hospital doctors suffocated baby in womb
For hotelier Nitin Chavan the year could not have ended on a worse note. On December 30, the Kondhwa resident lost his baby to what he alleges is medical negligence on the part of doctors at Jehangir hospital.
Chavan's wife Pikipratyusha (36) was admitted to the hospital on December 29 around 6.30 pm after she started experiencing labour pains. After being admitted, Chavan was allegedly told that his wife was not in labour. "It was only after further examination that they agreed that she was in labour.
My wife was in severe pain. Considering her situation we asked them to go ahead with a caesarean operation," said Chavan. He added that this was to be their second child; their son was born ten years ago through a normal delivery.
'Doctor came late'
But according to him, the two resident doctors who were handling his wife's case refused to do so. He alleged that they said only senior gynaecologist Dr Manjiri Kulkarni, under whose care she was admitted, could decide. "My wife is consulting Dr Manjiri since the beginning of pregnancy.
At the last minute, the doctor was not available nor did she contact us. At 1 pm the pain became unbearable. The doctor then instructed the residents to give my wife an epidural injection," said Chavan.
'C-section not done'
Finally at 5 am, after the Chavan family allegedly created a ruckus, the senior gynaecologist arrived at the hospital and took Chavan for immediate delivery.
"They conducted a normal delivery even though we had been insisting on a caesarean. Because of the unavailability of the doctor and the lax attitude, my baby died inside the womb. The doctor came out and told us that the baby had choked on the amniotic fluid.
But our point is that the baby became breathless because the water bag had burst several hours before and they should have conducted the delivery then itself," said Chavan.
The family blamed doctors at Jehangir hospital and have lodged a formal complaint at Bund Garden police station and also took the baby to Sassoon hospital for post mortem.
The Other Side
Dr Manjiri Kulkarni said, "The water bag of the woman had burst one and half months ago when the baby was 26 weeks. Then she was admitted here for 10-12 days and we have managed to conserve the pregnancy. The baby was born in 34 weeks and was a pre-term baby.
It is difficult to assess the survival chances of the baby." Ask-ed if the chances would have been better had the delivery taken place earlier, she said it was not possible to estimate this. Dr Prasad Mogrikar, hospital medical superintendent, said if found guilty in the inquiry, the doctors responsible would be suspended.
