Pregnant woman carried in a cooking vessel to reach hospital, gave birth to a still-born baby

Bijapur: A picture of pregnant and close-to-term woman carrying in a cooking vessel across river to reach the nearest hospital has goes viral on social media. According to her husband she gave birth to a still-born baby, allegedly due to negligence of the staff at the community hospital in Bhopalpatnam town. The incident which took place on July 13.

As per her husband Harish the stillbirth was the result of hospital staff waiting for the duty doctor to arrive for hours to look at his wife – Lakshmi Yalam. Harish said he has lodged a complaint with the block medical officer (BMO) and will meet the collector if no action is taken.

BMO Ajay Ramteke told the media that showcause notices have been served on three hospital staff. ‘We have received the complaint and are investigating what happened that night. Due action will be taken,’ he said. Harish said he has not heard from the officials even a week on.

Married four years ago, Lakshmi, 35, and Harish, 33, were expecting their first child. Residents of Mamidguda village, about 40 km from district headquarters Bijapur, they were staying at Lakshmi’s parents’ home in Minur village since it is closer to health centre in Bhopalpatnam, a tehsil town in Bijapur.

Minur, under the group gram panchayat of Gorla, is 43 km from Bijapur city and 15 km from the tehsil. The Chintawagu river flows between Gorla and Minur.

Harish said the showers had swollen the river and the riverbed was slippery. ‘We had to carry Lakshmi in a big utensil, with wooden poles across it. The ambulance met us at Gorla. We reached the Bhopalpatnam hospital by 3 pm (on July 13),’ he said. He (Dr Kishan) said had there been a delay of half-an-hour we could have lost Lakshmi too,’ Harish said. He added local residents need access to better doctors, ‘who are not negligent’.