Rare quadruplet birth ends in a tragedy

Kupwara: In a rare incident, a woman in north Kashmir’s Kupwara district delivered a quadruplet at the Community Health Center (CHC) here Sunday night but none of the four babies could survive.

A 28-year-old woman Khalida Begum, wife of Shafqat Bhat from the Keran sector of north Kashmir’s Kupwara district Monday delivered a quadruplet including three baby boys and a baby girl at Sub District Hospital Kupwara.

She had developed labour pain, following which she was shifted to Primary Health Centre (PHC) Keran but due to the non-availability of a gynaecologist there, she was referred to Kupwara by the on-duty doctors.

The woman on reaching SDH Kupwara at about 2 pm was immediately shifted to the labour room where she successfully delivered four babies with the prompt assistance of the on-duty staff.

Medical Superintendent SDH Kupwara, Dr Muhammad Shafi Mir told Greater Kashmir that this was the first pregnancy of Khalida, and happened to be the first such case in Kupwara district.

He said that it was a premature delivery but still on duty doctors did their job efficiently.

“The woman had just entered the seventh month of her pregnancy and unexpectedly developed labour pain which happens to be unusual in most of the cases. Due to the very low weight of the babies they were referred to District Hospital Handwara. The babies were 600-700 gm which forced us to refer them,” he said.

However, three of the newborn babies died at District Hospital Handwara while the fourth baby was referred to a hospital in Srinagar in critical condition for advanced treatment but could not be saved.

Last year in winter, a woman delivered a baby at PHC Keran when a team of gynaecologists at Kupwara assisted the doctors in Keran via WhatsApp call to help the woman with delivery.

“After that incident, we were assured that a gynaecologist would be deputed at PHC Keran but to no avail. We have been left at Allah’s mercy. We are now fed up with the repeated false promises made by the authorities about deputing a gynaecologist at PHC Keran,” Block Development Council (BDC), Keran, Chairman Muhammad Syed told Greater Kashmir.