HYDERABAD: With Friday’s incidents of two post-delivery deaths, maternal mortality cases from city’s major government hospitals have reached nine for the year. However, with the prelimnary inquiry report concerning previous incidents tabled before the principal secretary (health) Rajeshwar Tiwari, no details have been divulged yet. Moreover, no action has been taken against the doctors who performed the C-section surgeries, even their identities have been kept confidential.
While health minister Laxma Reddy has sought a report and said that action will be taken in case of negligence. It may be recalled that two maternal deaths occurred at the government maternity hospital in Koti and the state government is yet to release the report as to what exactly caused the deaths
. While allegations are rife pointing at possible botch up surgeries, director of medical education M Ramani maintained that 19 cesarean sections were performed at the Government Maternity Hospital on Thursday and that only 12 of them were planned.
“Seven of these were emergency cases and two were high risk and both of them have died and we are suspecting that one was suffering from amniotic fluid embolism, while the other was a case of hyper tension,” said the Director of Medical Education (DME).
Two other women are currently out of danger, she added. “One of them has a team of doctors attending to her and is currently at the Acute Medical Care Unit at Osmania General Hospital, while the other went to a private hospital against medical advice. She too is doing fine,” added Ramani.
However, a hospital press release issued by the state government , Dr Shilaja, hospital superintendent, said that all the pregnant women were suffering from hypertension. Post surgery there was a drop in their blood pressure levels and they died.
After the Niloufer incident, Dr C Suresh Kumar, superintendent of Niloufer and Dr K Usha Rani, Resident Medical Officer (RMO) were moved out of the hospital as the government found prima-facie negligence on their part.
Suresh Kumar surrendered to the DME, whereas Rani surrendered to the director of public health and Family Welfare, for further posting while inquiries are underway.
While Telangana government promised to investigate into the issue and publish a report on it, the report has not seen light of the day even after more than two months since the deaths occurred.