KALPETTA: Staff crunch and the lack of facilities resulted in the death of the triplets of a tribal woman in Wayanad on September 2.
The government had suspended Dr T.K. Sushama of the district hospital, Mananthavadi, on the charges that she had not attended to the pregnant woman, Anitha, 27, when she reached there following labour pains.
But doctors are fuming over the suspension saying that Dr Sushama had rightly directed the woman to another hospital owing to lack of facilities and shortage of manpower at the district hospital.
A doctor on condition of anonymity said that even if the doctor had attended to the delivery, there was no possibility of saving the children as the district hospital has no neonatal care facility. “Not only the district hospital, but no other hospital in the district has neonatal ICU,” he added.
Anitha from Edathana, Valad, near Mananthavadi, Wayanad, lost her three babies as there were none to attend to her when she reached the district hospital at Mananthavadi.
Anitha was sent to Kozhikode Medical College in an ambulance without a nurse. Midway, she gave birth to a boy at Panamaram community health centre.
The second child was born at Pachilakad in the ambulance itself. The third delivery was at general hospital, Kalpetta. All of them died later.
When queried about the failure of the health department, Wayanad DMO Dr P.V. Sasidharan told DC that acute manpower shortage and lack of facilities resulted in the deaths.
The district hospital with staff strength of 56 doctors has 23 vacancies and the gynaecology department is the worst affected.
Out of six gynaecologists, four posts are vacant and the doctors are struggling by working round-the-clock.
“The two doctors attend to hundreds of patients and also have been taking care of some ‘160 to 200’ deliveries every month,” he noted.
“If we had sufficient staff and better facilities, the triplets could have been saved,” he said.
Noted health activist Kunjabdulla Tirumangalam told DC that despite the series of warnings from doctors on the complex nature of the pregnancy, the Asha workers and tribal promoters had failed to ensure adequate care to the woman.
