Riya Gupta, New Delhi
By removing the newborn baby’s head and leaving it inside the mother’s womb, staff members of a rural health centre (RHC) in Sindh province, Pakistan, put a 32-year-old Hindu lady in danger of dying, according to media reports. She was even caught on camera lying on a stretcher.
The terrible incident prompted the Sindh government to set up a medical inquiry board to investigate what happened and identify the perpetrators.
According to Professor Raheel Sikander, head of the gynaecology department at the Liaquat University of Medical and Health Sciences (LUMHS) in Jamshoro, “The Bheel Hindu woman, who belongs to a remote village in Tharparkar district, had first gone to a Rural Health Centre (RHC) in her area but, with no female gynaecologist available, the inexperienced staff caused her immense trauma.”
In a bungled procedure performed on Sunday, the RHC staff severed the unborn baby’s head in the mother’s womb and left it within her, he claimed.
The woman was brought to a local hospital in Mithi where there were no facilities to treat her when she was in a life-threatening scenario.
Eventually, her relatives took her to the LUMHS, where the newborn’s remaining body was removed, saving the mother’s life, according to him.
The investigation team will also look into accusations that some hospital staff members photographed and recorded recordings of the woman while she lay on a stretcher battling for her life, according to Dr. Juman Bahoto, Director-General of Sindh Health Services. Juman continued, “Apparently, some staff members captured her pictures on a phone in the gynaecology ward and shared such pictures with several WhatsApp groups.
