HYDERABAD: In the course of just one week, five mothers died while delivering their babies at Niloufer Hospital, a shocking statistic that points to medical negligence of some kind.

All the women underwent C-section surgeries, after which there was severe bleeding in some cases. The deaths occurred between January 28 and February 4 this year.


On Health Minister Dr Laxma Reddy's orders, the director of medical education, Dr M Ramani, went to the hospital to take stock of the situation.

She said that a three-member team consisting of Dr Deep Raj Singh, Dr Rani and Dr Pratibha would look into all the issues that might have caused infection, such as quality of the drugs, checking of blood samples, hygiene in the operation theatre etc.

The family members of the women, who held a protest near the hospital, alleged that they had to buy blood from outside after doctors at Niloufer told them to do so as some of the women were anaemic.

When asked about this, DME Ramani said that blood is available at the hospital, but she will look into the allegations made by the concerned families.

Deaths puncture hospital claims of safe deliveries
It's not difficult to believe the allegation of the families of the women that medical negligence caused their deaths.

At the same hospital, a piece of cotton was left inside a mother's body last year after she underwent a C-section. Her health deteriorated rapidly and she was rushed to Osmania Hospital, where scans revealed the negligence of the Niloufer hospital doctors, according to sources. Fortunately, the patient survived in this instance.

The government insists on institutional deliveries as being safer, but the condition of public hospitals continues to be abysmal since such a tiny percentage of GDP is invested in public health. Boasts about doing great things for women also sound hollow when maternal mortality rates continue to be high.