A pregnant woman lost her newborn baby after delivering her in a moving car as she was allegedly denied an ambulance by the doctors at the public health community centre Kalaroos in north Kashmir’s Kupwara district on Saturday.
The woman Fatima Begum from Sarkuli area of Kalaroos wasbrought to nearby PHC Kalaroos in labour pain, where the doctors examined herand referred her to sub-district hospital Kupwara.
“The doctor told me that my wife had some complications andthey could not manage her delivery at the PCH Kalaroos. They further told methat she needed tests, which cannot be done there,” said Mohammad Shafi Kohli.
He said when he asked the doctors to provide him with anambulance so that he could take her pregnant wife to the hospital she wasreferred to, “they denied.”
“Then I came out from the hospital and hired a Sumo to movemy wife to Kupwara hospital. When we reached near Khumriyal, my wife deliveredthe baby in the moving vehicle and the baby died,” said Shafi adding, ‘I demandinvestigation and strict action against the doctors.’
Shafi said they came back to Kalaroos PHC and along thedeceased baby who “only died for want of medical attention.”
“If the doctors would have provided me the medical supportand ambulance, maybe my child would have survived,” he said.
When contacted, Dr Bilal Ahmad at PHC Kalaroos said: “Iexamined the pregnant lady at around 9:30am today but due to some complicationsin her pregnancy which were not manageable here, I referred her to Kupwarahospital.”
He rejected the allegation of the not providing theambulance to the couple. “They told me that they had their own vehicle and theywould take the pregnant lady to the hospital on their own and then I let themgo,” Dr Bilal said.
When contacted, block medical officer Kupwara Dr. Zaffarsaid: “I will look into the matter why the ambulance was not provided to thecouple,” he said.
Earlier this year, a woman from Kalaroos area of Kupwaralost her newborn after she delivered the baby on road in Srinagar.