Death of woman, newborn sparks tension at KIMS Bhubaneswar

Bhubaneswar: Tension erupted at the Kalinga Institute of Medical Sciences (KIMS) in Bhubaneswar on Sunday following death of a woman and her newborn.

As per reports, a woman identified as Sunita Behera of Tangibanta under Mancheswar police limits in Khurda district was admitted in the hospital on May 11 after she complained of labour pain. On May 12, she delivered a baby and died while undergoing treatment.

The child, who was in neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) of the hospital, died today after which family members of the woman along with villagers of Tangibanta sat on dharana infront of the hospital raising slogans of medical negligence.

“The weight of the child was 4.4 kg. We opted for delivery through Caesarean section but the hospital staff insisted on a normal delivery and killed the mother. They also forcibly removed the child out of the ventilator because of which his condition turned critical. We have been spending on treatment of the child for the last 22 days but it died today,” said Sunita’s husband.

“The doctors from Capital hospital in the medical reports had clearly mentioned the need to perform a C-Section operation. But the doctors here played with the patient's life. We consulted five different doctors and all of them said that a C-section should have been performed,” said an agitator demanding compensation for the loss of lives.

“The allegations are totally false. The woman died of heart attack in the labour room during normal delivery. The child was kept under observation in the NICU, but it died today morning,” said Deputy Registrar of KIMS, Dilip Kumar Panda.

The villagers finally withdrew the agitation after the police intervened. The pending bill of the family was exempted, sources said.