Case under investigation of woman who had to have her uterus removed after foetus died in womb

Indira Gandhi Memorial hospital (IGMH) has commenced investigation into the case of a woman who has had to have her uterus removed due to damage caused to it during the delivery of her baby which had been strangled to death by its umbilical cord.

The woman is 24 years old and was admitted in IGMH last Friday. A member of her family told Sun Online that they were told by officials at Dhaalu Bandidhoo Health Centre that the baby’s umbilical cord was wrapped around its neck. They were told the same thing when they subsequently went to Dh. Kudahuvadhoo.

He said that in Male’, they visited women’s specialist Dr Meeta at Imperial, who also advised, following contractions, to take the woman to the hospital and to request for a caesarean delivery. However, when the woman was taken to IGMH on Friday evening, she was asked to wait to see if she gives birth naturally despite the umbilical cord being wrapped around the baby’s neck. Twelve hours later, they were told that the baby had died in the womb.

“We went to IGMH on Friday evening and requested for a caesarean. The doctor at the emergency room at the time said that their protocol was to wait to see if she gave natural birth. They checked the baby’s heartbeat at 1:15am that night and said it was ok. When they started to leave, the family requested to check the heartbeat every 15 minutes. But they said that the heartbeat can only be checked every 2 hours. They came back at 3:15am, checked the heartbeat and blood pressure, and there was no movement or heartbeat. Then they hurried and shifted the patient to the labour room, and there still was no heartbeat. A scan was requested, and by the time this could be done it was 5:00am. By then the baby had died in the womb,” he said.

He said that the couple has a three-year-old girl as well, and that she delivered by caesarean.

“The family wanted a caesarean because she had had to do that previously,” he said.

The family said that after the baby died, she was moved to the ward for a normal delivery, after which hospital officials tried to remove the child by caesarean at around 6:00pm yesterday.

“They child was dead in the womb. Doctors then said that the best thing would be to deliver normally with normal labour pains. The patient had been prepared for that, but then at around 6:00pm we saw nurses preparing to take her to the operation theatre. When we asked why they said that the doctor was at the theatre and that they wanted to perform a caesarean. They wouldn’t do a caesarean even when we begged earlier, and the doctor had said that since the baby had died the best thing for the patient also would be a normal delivery; so the family did not want a caesarean after the baby died. So she was kept,” he said.

He said that the baby was born by normal delivery at around 3:30am last night and that they said after the delivery that there was some internal bleeding and took her to the theatre for an operation. Four pints of blood had to be transfused into her, and the hospital informed the family that the only way to save the patient would be to remove the uterus as the uterus had been damaged and the bleeding continued - following which the uterus was removed today.

“The labour room said that uterus had been torn in several places during the delivery. They said that they did not know the origin of the bleeding, and the uterus thus has to be removed in order to save the patient. So the family agreed to this. The uterus has been removed. The woman is doing fine,” he said.

The family accused severe negligence on the part of IGMH in the delivery, and requested the hospital to investigate this matter.

COO of IGMH Dr Ismail Shafeeu told Sun Online today that a case related to a woman whose baby died during delivery is currently under investigation. He said that he was not informed enough to provide specific details.

“Something like that has happened, we are looking into it. There are plenty of problems related to IGMH, some of which involve negligence by the staff. They’re all under investigation,” he said.

Meanwhile, last week, a baby born after five months of pregnancy was sent to the cemetery by IGMH to be buried when he was still alive. The baby was returned to the hospital when people realised that he was not dead. This case is under investigation by the hospital as well as the police. The baby died later while being treated in ICU at IGMH.