Pretermitted delivery, wife critical newborn dies: Gross negligence at maternity hospital

Reporters Club: Dhading Galcchi Ward no 4 resident Amar Pariyar has alleged that due to the gross negligence of the Director Dr. Jogeshwor Gautam, at the Thapathali based maternity hospital he has lost his son. Not only that, but he also alleged that his wife’s health has been permanently damaged.

Speaking at a press conference organized at the Reporters Club in Kathmandu, Amar said that “due to negligence of the maternity hospital staff and the Director Dr. Gautam, he has lost his son. We had constantly been in touch during the time of pregnancy and with their advice, we had proceeded accordingly and had regular checkups”.

Amar further said “even when the doctors there called us thrice a week, we were always there at the hospital. It was in their set date that we went to the hospital for delivery and during the initial tests both the Mother and baby were doing fine, this was also further stated by a foreign doctor present in the hospital and the reports were normal with no complications detected”.

When Amar’s wife was admitted for delivery on September 6th the staffs were irresponsible in their conduct alleges Amar. “I saw my wife’s health was deteriorating, and I called the nurses, but they were adamant and instead of calling the senior doctors, they began arguing with me”.

Recalling that day Amar stated ” My wife was losing a lot of blood, I had informed the nurses and the attendants regarding the same and requested them to call the doctor immediately, but instead of heeding to my advice they started an argument saying ‘ we know how to handle these cases better than you do’, the following morning I had informed the doctor as well but the person did not pay much attention to the situation.

My wife was taken to the neonatal ward much later, and the Doctor began the procedure, I was finally relieved but in less than a half-hour, the Doctor called me again and informed me that my child did not have a heartbeat and they would wait and try for normal delivery. The doctor called me again this time informing me that my baby had died and needed to be surgically removed, it felt as though my life had collapsed.

After the death of my baby, the Doctor further said that my wife’s kidney had failed, and she was kept in the hospital for two days. At the hospital’s referral I took my wife to Singamangal based Kathmandu Medical College, my wife’s situation is extremely critical. Both her kidneys have stopped functioning”. Amar said that since the maternity hospital was old, he felt it was trustworthy, and that is the reason he took his wife there for treatment. But due to gross negligence of the hospital, he lost his son, and now his wife is in an extremely critical condition.

He also says that it was the hospital’s fault for his wife’s renal condition, and he has asked to be duly compensated. He has already spent over 400,000 Nepalese rupees, and he is not financially strong. He has also requested the authorities to have an investigation into this matter and initiate action against the hospital staff and the Director for which he has lost his son, and made his wife critical.