Pregnant woman dies at ESI hospital

Kin blame negligence

An atmosphere of unease prevailed at the ESI hospital in Peenya on Wednesday after a 23-year-old pregnant woman died under mysterious circumstances there.

Kin of the deceased expectant mother staged a protest at the hospital alleging that she died due to medical negligence.

Arpitha from Kunigal married Jayaram two years ago. She was staying in a rented house near Laggere. The couple was working at a garment factory. After Arpitha became pregnant, she was consulting doctors at the ESI hospital. Doctors had told her the expected delivery date was February 4.

According to Arpitha's mother Parvathamma, on Tuesday, around 5.30 am, Arpitha developed an ache in the abdomen. She was then rushed to the hospital. But, there were no doctors to attend to Arpitha at the hospital until 9:00 am.

"As the doctors finally arrived, they told us that they will do the delivery on the same day, but till 10:00 pm there was no development. Then one Dr Nataraj administered drops, and within no time Arpitha developed pain in her body. She started screaming," Parvathamma further said.

The family rushed to inform only to be dismissed by the doctors who said these things are in fact common. Soon after, when Parvathamma returned to the ward, Arpitha was struggling in pain taking deep breaths.

"Later, after attending to Arpitha, the doctors said she was no more, and they do not know what had happened to my daughter. Even to the query by my son-in-law Jayaram, doctors did not respond. They did not specify any reason for my daughter's death," the grieving mother added.

Further on, the family demanded that ESI hospital furnish the details of the medicines administered to Arpitha, so that they could show it to other medical practitioners for confirmation. As the ESI staff refused, the family staged a protest till they receive the information.

"We won’t take Arpitha’s body from the hospital," an angry Parvathamma said then.

According to Dr K S Yoganandan, the hospital superintendent, there are no trainee doctors working at the hospital. “The pregnant lady came and she was given IV fluids along with medication to develop labour pain. Then, she developed a neck pain. A senior doctor rushed to see her, but she immediately developed seizures and started bleeding from the nose. Despite all efforts, she could not be revived. There is no negligence involved. As we do not know the reason for her death, we have recommended postmortem to ascertain the cause of death,” he added.

Meanwhile, RMC Yard police rushed to the spot and assured Arpitha's relatives that action would be taken against the hospital staff if found guilty, after consulting medical experts. The police then requested the family to receive the mortal remains which they did thereafter.