Chhatarpur (Madhya Pradesh): A heart-wrenching incident unfolded at Eshanagar Community Health Centre in Chhatarpur on Saturday late night when a pregnant woman gave birth to a baby in the hospital’s toilet, resulting in newborn’s death.
The family of the woman has accused the duty nurse of demanding a bribe for assisting in the delivery and when they were unable to pay, the nurse allegedly refused to help and instructed them to go to district hospital.
The incident occurred late Saturday night when Balkishan Adivasi from Salaiya village brought his 24-year-old pregnant wife, Prembai Adivasi, to the health centre for delivery.
According to Balkishan, the nurse Preeti Prajapati demanded ?2,000 for conducting the delivery. When they couldn’t pay, the nurse refused to assist and told them to take Prembai to district hospital. While waiting, Prembai informed her sister-in-law Pyari Adivasi that she needed to use the bathroom.
Pyari told her that the hospital toilet was dark. As Prembai entered, she suddenly began screaming. When Pyari rushed, she found that Prembai had given birth but the newborn had fallen into the toilet bowl, injuring its head. Despite family’s pleas, the nurse refused to come, and after about 10 minutes of begging the nurse and hospital sweeper for help, the newborn died in the bathroom.
On Sunday morning, Balkishan along with his wife and family members, lodged a complaint against the nurse and other hospital staff at Eshanagar police station. District collector Parth Jaiswal sent a team including CMHO RP Gupta, SDM Akhil Rathore, tehsildar and patwari to the health centre. The officials met with the grieving family and listened to their complaints.
SDM Rathore provided financial assistance of ?5,000 to the family and arranged better treatment for Prembai at the district hospital. He also said a proposal for nurse’s suspension was being prepared and that action would be taken against BMO and the attending doctor.
Nurse suspended
The joint director of health services, Sagar, has suspended the nurse with immediate effect.
