Visakhapatnam: Navy hospital's negligence killed baby, says engineer's wife

Visakhapatnam: The wife of an Indian Navy engineer who lost her baby boy at the navy's hospital in Vizag due to alleged medical negligence at the time of delivery, wants authorities to take action against the careless doctors.

Madhu Pal, a media professional (BBC- Hindi) working in Mumbai, had shifted in April to Vizag for her delivery following her husband's transfer from Mumbai to Vizag's Naval Dockyard. She delivered a baby boy on July 29 with reported breathing problems. The baby was kept in the Neo-Natal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) and battled for life for four days and died.

"There were no complications in the case till the time of delivery. Due to non-availability of the doctor in the labor room, nurses were not able to take the decision for vacuum or cesarean. So they approached the doctor thrice who was in another room but had not turned up. Those three minutes of carelessness by staff and doctors to decide what to do, have taken away my son,'' Madhu told this correspondent.

She also wrote a letter to the Commanding Officer of Indian Navy Hospital Kalyani explaining the ordeal and the pain. "At 0730 hrs on July 29, I had been to hospital Kalyani with my husband. They admitted me and took me to labour room of the hospital. An MNS (medical staff) checked my blood pressure and scanned my baby's movement. My baby was perfectly fine and in the right position, she mentioned. As family members are not allowed to go inside the labour room, I was there with three MNS and other patients. I had severe bleeding now with back pain but not labour pain. I said the same thing to the MNS that I am not feeling any labour pain. But they asked me to 'push as hard you can'. I did what they said but after a few hours I requested them to use vacuum now as I was unable to push more,” she said.