TUMAKURU: In a heart-wrenching incident, a 30-year-old pregnant woman and her twin babies died during delivery at her home on Thursday after she was denied treatment at Tumakuru district general hospital on Wednesday after she failed to produce her health card.
The woman, identified as Kasturi, was a resident of Bharatinagar in Tumakuru. She developed labour pain on Wednesday night and reached the hospital with the help of her neighbour at 9 pm. However, it is alleged that the hospital asked her to produce her ‘mother health card’.
As Kasturi did not have the card, she was asked to go to Bengaluru’s Victoria Hospital. Kasturi, however, returned to her home and developed complications and bleeding while delivering the babies on Thursday morning and eventually died along with the newborns.
The victim’s husband was not in Tumakuru at the time of the incident, sources said. The victim has a six-year-old daughter.
The incident has come under severe criticism from both Congress and the JDS. Health and Family Welfare Minister Dr K Sudhakar visited the hospital on Thursday evening and took stock of the situation. Duty doctor Usha AR and three nurses have been suspended pending departmental inquiry, the minister added.
Meanwhile, JDS leader HD Kumaraswamy took to Twitter to slam the government. “A while ago I tweeted about the dark side of state @BJP4Karnataka government administration (recession incident) which is drowning in politics, elections and propaganda. But, a more terrible and gut-wrenching incident took place in Tumkur, which shook the whole of Karnataka(sic)” he tweeted, demanding Sudhakar’s resignation.
“Is mother card important, or the treatment? Life matters, or rules? @mla_sudhakar What is important? Is the rule mandatory for treatment that is not for corruption?”, Congress attacked the minister.