Hyderabad: The death of two women who underwent cesarean operations at the government maternity hospital in Malakpet, and the subsequent admission of eight others —who underwent similar surgeries at the same hospital — to NIMS as a matter of abundant precaution have raised the prospects of another instance of botched surgeries in a state-run hospital.
Though the post-mortem examinations of the two women, who died after they were shifted to Gandhi Hospital, have not yielded conclusive results as to the cause of death, initial indications are that both Sri Vennala,21, and Shivani, 24, could have succumbed to complications arising from existing health conditions.
“We have sent the viscera and fluid samples to the forensic science laboratory for tests and once the results are received the cause or causes of the death can be ascertained,” Dr Ajay Kumar, commissioner Telangana Vaidya Vidhana Parishad (TVVP), said on Saturday. The Malakpet hospital comes under TVVP’s the administrative control.
However, at the Nizam's Institute of Medical Sciences, the eight women, who were to be kept under observation, were being administered antibiotics with health department officials fearing that they could have acquired an infection at the hospital before, during or after the surgeries.
Of the eight, one was taken away from the hospital by her family that reportedly declared that they did not have faith in the treatment and wanted to take her to a hospital of their choice.
“They were advised that this was not a wise move, but they were adamant,” a health department official said.
All the 10 women — the two deceased and the eight shifted to NIMS — had undergone cesareans on January 11 at the Malakpet hospital. There were no issues with those who underwent surgeries on January 10 or on January 12. What happened on January 11 needs to be examined carefully to determine if anything went wrong that day,” the official said.
That will be the job of a committee set up by the Vaidya Vidhana Parishad to investigate what happened during the surgeries on January 11 at the Malakpet hospital.
It was learnt that all those who were admitted to NIMS, including the woman who left the hospital, were administered morepenem, considered as an antibiotic of higher order, or otherwise referred to as a reserve antibiotic, typically used to treat infections resistant to more commonly used antibiotics. It was learnt that blood and other samples of the patients have been sent for culture and only after the reports are received that it would be possible to determine if the women were indeed suffering from any infection or not.
