Madhya Pradesh: Woman in labour made to walk, baby dies

BHOPAL: A woman in labour, who had to walk as a government hospital in Madhya Pradesh’s Betul did not give her a stretcher, delivered the baby mid-stride. The infant – her firstborn – fell on the road and died.
The district administration has ordered a probe while the hospital denied any shortage of stretchers and implied that the woman, 24-year-old Neelu Verma, started walking on her own.
Neelu, a resident of Ghodadongri tehsil, about 40km from the district HQ, was brought to Betul district hospital by a Janani Express ambulance after she started having labour pain in the morning.
She is herself a staff nurse with the health department in Gwalior district, but when she needed a stretcher, there was none.
Sources said that as soon as Neelu was brought to the hospital, an ASHA worker who accompanied her informed the hospital for a stretcher but it wasn’t provided, says the family.

Realising how close she was to delivery, Neelu started walking in the hope that she would make it to the labour room, but the baby was born on the way.
Chief medical and health officer of Betul, Pradeep Moses, said: “It is a serious incident, and we have constituted a probe to find out the truth. District health officer N K Choudhary and gynaecologist Pratibha Raghuvanshi have been asked to submit their probe report within 48 hours. Strict action will be taken against anyone found guilty.”
He said that two ambulances had arrived at the same time in hospital.
“While one patient was being taken into the hospital, the other patient started walking, leading to the incident. There is no scarcity of stretchers or manpower at the hospital. Our probe will make things clear,” Moses said.