The unborn twins of a pregnant woman died in Kerala’s Malappuram after she was denied treatment at three hospitals because of a Coronavirus scare.
The woman’s husband, NC Sherief, said he lost his twins after he tried getting his wife, 20, admitted to a hospital for around 14 hours, but was turned away repeatedly. “I took my wife Shahala to Manjeri medical college with severe pain at around 4.30 am on Saturday. But after going to several hospitals she finally got treatment only around 6.30 pm,” he said.
A C-section was performed late evening on Sunday, but by then, it was too late, and the unborn twins died. Describing the incident as extremely painful, health minister KK Shailaja has ordered an enquiry and has asked the health secretary to probe and submit a report.
Sherief said he took his wife to Manjeri Medical College after she complained of labour pain, but they did not admit her, stating that it was a Covid-19 hospital, and referred her to another hospital even as she was in pain.
He said his wife had earlier tested positive for Covid-19 in early September. On September 15, she tested negative in an antigen test and returned home. After some days, she started experiencing pain and consulted doctors at the Manjeri Medical College on September 18.
However, on Sunday, when she had to get admitted, the private hospitals did not consider the antigen test results which was done by the government and insisted on RT-PCR test results.
According to Sherief, he had tried to get his wife admitted at a private hospital in Edavanna first on Friday night, where they said she cannot be given treatment because of coronavirus, refusing to consider the antigen test result.
After Manjeri medical college also refused to admit her and referred to another government hospital in neighbouring Kozhikode district, they reached the hospital only to find there was no gynaecologist there. The woman was then referred to the Kozhikode Medical College.
In the midst of all this, Sherief said he also called another private hospital, but they also insisted on RT-PCR test to admit Shahala.
After this the family took the pregnant woman to KMCT hospital, Mukkam, where they agreed to admit her. After scanning they also referred the patient the Kozhikode Medical College, where the C-section was performed.
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