Woman delivers dead child in ambulance

In a tragic incident, a woman delivered a dead child in an ambulance on Saturday evening after she was shunted around in three different hospitals in Bhiwandi and Thane.

Sources said that the woman, Lalita Mukne, was a native of Padgha village in Bhiwandi and was full term pregnant. She had developed high blood pressure since a few days and this had resulted in the swelling of her hands and feet after which she and her husband Adesh Mukne went to the local public health centre.

In a police statement, her husband Adesh Mukne said that from the PHC they were referred to a local hospital for treatment of his wife’s condition. “But the doctors at this hospital again said that they do not have the required facilities to deal with this problem and they sent us to Thane Civil Hospital,” he said.

The family, which had left home early in the morning, finally reached the civil hospital late in the afternoon. “The doctors who examined Lalita said that they do not have the facilities to treat the problem and asked us to go to JJ Hospital for treatment,” he said.

The husband said that they managed to get an ambulance and started their journey towards JJ Hospital with a doctor and an assistant along with them. “On the way, my wife started having labour pains and she delivered in the ambulance itself,” he said. Since the child was still and not making any movements, the ambulance was diverted Rajawadi Hospital, where the child was declared dead before admission.

Sources at Rajawadi Hospital said that the male child was stillborn and never came to life at the time of delivery. “It is possible that the woman was suffering from a condition called pregnancy-induced hypertension and this could have been easily treated at any of the hospitals where they went,” a senior doctor said. Being shunted from one hospital to another only resulted in the treatment getting delayed and eventually the death of the child, he pointed out.

Another doctor explained that if the mother was suffering from any complication, then the child could have been delivered through a Caesarean operation. “It is tragic when the administration is spending crores of rupees to reduce mother and child mortality in the country, something like this can happen even today,” he said.

Mukne said that his wife is still upset about the death of her child and is currently under treatment at a local hospital. He further said that there is no point in complaining since his child is already dead and is wants to make sure that his wife is alright.