Probe on Shopian pregnant woman's death reveals flaws

Shopian, July 13: The Chief Medical Officer (CMO), Shopian on Saturday submitted the enquiry report into the death of a pregnant woman at Lal Ded (LD) Hospital, a key tertiary care hospital in Srinagar to the Director Health Services.

The report, however, exposes several flaws in it, suggesting a bias towards the hospital authorities, besides virtually shifting the blame to the tertiary care hospital.

Shobey Jan, a pregnant woman from Dragad village of south Kashmir’s Shopian district, died on July 7 after she was referred to LD Hospital from District Hospital Shopian.

Following the death of the patient, the LD authorities reported that the medical staff at DH Shopian had not followed the referral protocol, spurring the CMO, Shopian to order an enquiry.

The enquiry report says that the patient was brought to the DH Shopian in a private vehicle at 4.30 am and an OPD ticket was obtained at 4.44 am as suggested by the CCTV footage provided by the Medical Superintendent, Shopian.

“… And as per the CCTV footage provided by the Medical Superintendent only the attendant could be seen rushing to the first floor/ Labour room for medical assistance of the patient, who was lying in a private vehicle in the premises of DH Shopian at that point of time already mentioned”, reads the report.

According to the report, the CCTV footage shows medical staff rushing downstairs to attend the patient to do the needful and reportedly the patient has been shifted from the private vehicle to ambulance as demanded by the attendants.

“And as reported by the attending staff IV Line was secured with fluids and vitals were checked, patient was oriented with time, space and person”, reads the report.

However, the tertiary care hospital had reported that “patient had gone into irreversible shock. No IV line and no proper referral procedure was followed, no medical person was accompanying and even BP was not checked.”

The claim has been corroborated by the referral ticket where there is no mention of vitals having been checked by the on-duty staff. However, the report says it may have not entered the OPD ticket in haste.

The report is also silent about whether a medical professional accompanied the patient to the tertiary hospital or not.

Mushtaq Ahmad Genie, father of the deceased, told Greater Kashmir that neither blood pressure nor the oxygen saturation of the patient was checked upon their arrival to the hospital.

“No medical person accompanied us”, he added.

The report has also failed to obtain the statement of the deceased patient’s attendants to cross check the claims made by the medical staff to ensure a fair enquiry.

The patient, according to the report, was attended by a 3rd year PG student, suggesting that no gynecologist was available with the facility.

The report, quoting the on-duty doctor and para medical staff, says that the attendants only demanded an ambulance to shift the patient to the tertiary care hospital as the patient was on regular antenatal follow- up.

According to the report, the patient was “reportedly” told by the consulting doctor at LD Hospital to report immediately to the facility in case of any emergency. The report has shifted blame to tertiary care hospitals.

“As per the protocol, placenta accreta patients need to be admitted prior to the due date in a tertiary care hospital”, reads the report. The report questions why the patient was allowed to stay home.

“In order to ascertain these facts, we need to check antenatal records also which may be lying in the LD Hospital”, concludes the report.