Denied admission by 3 hospitals, woman gives birth in auto, baby dies

A pregnant woman hunting for a hospital bed in Bengaluru was turned away from at least three staterun facilities on Sunday She gave birth in an autorickshaw that was rushing her from one hospital to another in search of medical care However the infant that was born without any medical assistance diedAccording to a report in NDTV three staterun hospitals ndash Srirampura Government Hospital Victoria Hospital and Vanivilas which is the maternity wing of Victoria ndash said they had no beds to accommodate a pregnant woman Victoria Hospital is a designated COVID19 facilityThe woman who started searching for a bed in a hospital at 3 am could not find medical aid for six hours and was forced to deliver in the autorickshaw The auto driver then took the woman to KC General Hospital but the infant died outside the hospitalTweeting about the plight of the woman former Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah wrote ldquoA pregnant woman who was experiencing labour pain was denied treatment by many hospitals in Bengaluru She lost her newborn baby after delivering it in an autorickshaw CMofKarnataka I urge you to take action against all those hospitals that denied treatmentrdquoMore non covid patients are dying in Karnataka due to denial of treatment by hospitals CMofKarnataka cancel the licences of all those hospitals that deny treatments Just a mere warning will not move hospitals he said in another tweetIn the past 10 days this is the second incident of infant death due to lack of medical care On Saturday a man protested in front of Karnataka Chief Minister BS Yediyurappas residence alleging that lack of medical care claimed the life of his onemonthold infant girlPolice said that Venkatesh sat with the babys photograph in front of the CMs house saying the girl developed health issues on July 11 and he rushed her to a hospital but it turned him away He said he had approached about a dozen hospitals and all of them refused to provide any medical care to the baby Eventually the baby diedAlarmed over the surging coronavirus cases across Karnataka especially in Bengaluru Yediyurappa on Saturday had directed private medical college hospitals to admit infected patients and treat them on priority to reduce active casesHospitals attached to private medical colleges in the state should allot 50 per cent of their beds from Sunday to treat Covid patients whose number has been rising dailyrdquo Yeddiyurappa had told their representatives at a meetingThough most of the 520 private hospitals in Bengaluru and other citiestowns across the state allotted 50 per cent of beds for COVID19 patients on the state governments directive on June 20 hospitals attached to private colleges have not been forthcoming due to staff shortage and resource constraintsIt has come to our notice that many private medical college hospitals are not admitting Covid patients despite an official directive to them Patients are not getting timely treatment resulting in mortality rate increasing the CM lamentedThe Chief Minister assured the private college hospitals of providing doctors nurses and paramedics to treat the COVID19 patients if they were facing shortage The state government appointed nodal officers will monitor availability of beds in hospitals of the private medical colleges across the stateOn Wednesday record number of 4764 new cases were registered in Karnataka increasing the states tally to 75833With no change in the pattern of infections Bengaluru continues to report the highest number of cases recording 2050 on Wednesday raising the city tally to 36993 out of which 27969 are active Bengaluru accounts for 59 per cent of all the active cases a slight reduction of 2 per cent in one dayMeanwhile 55 patients succumbed to the virus on Wednesday raising the death toll to 1519 with Bengaluru accounting for 735 of themWith inputs from agenciesCatch up on all the latest Crime National International and Hatke news here Also download the new midday Android and iOS apps to get latest updates MidDay is now on Telegram Click here to join our channel middayinfomedialtd and stay updated with the latest news