BENGALURU: With the lockdown in place, a pregnant woman was forced to walk for over 7 km along with her husband in search of a hospital. But with many of the medical institutions being shut, the couple’s nightmare would have continued if not for the staffers of a dental clinic who came to their rescue and safely helped the woman deliver.
It was on April 14 that Shanti, a migrant worker from Odisha, who stays in Lottegollahalli, started to experience labour pain. Her husband rushed out to look for a hospital but could not find any. So the couple decided to go out together and check on the way. They walked for over 7 km, but all the hospitals they saw were closed. They were near the Krupa Dental Clinic at Doddabammasandra, when to their luck they spotted a person opening the clinic. The couple approached the woman who immediately informed the doctors.
But even before the doctors could arrive, Shanti started to experience contractions and was beginning to deliver in a passage near the clinic. Just then, dentist Dr Ramya Himanshi arrived and helped Shanti deliver safely. When the staffer alerted Dr Ramya at 9 am, she rushed to the clinic and saw that the woman had already started delivering and was about to fall unconscious.
“As I’m not a gynaecologist, I was unsure what was to be done. I called my husband, who is a general physician, and he came immediately,” said Dr Ramya. “Shanti was bleeding profusely and with great difficulty, we got the baby boy out. After the delivery, the baby didn’t show any sign of life. “But, after cleaning the baby and patting him, he cried. He was alive. We were very glad we could save both the mother and her baby boy, “ she said. Dr Ramya said the couple had gone without food for some time and the baby was born premature. The mother and child are in KC General Hospital now, she said.