Coimbatore: In an incident that has shocked many and drew much ire, a woman delivered her baby in an auto with no doctors available at the Primary Health Centre in Thudiyalur.
Coimbatore: In an incident that has shocked many and drew much ire, a woman delivered her baby in an auto with no doctors available at the Primary Health Centre in Thudiyalur.
Gautham and Jothikumari hail from Bihar and stay at Rakkipalayam near Thudiyalur. Both of them are daily wage labourers. The expectant mother Jothikumari had prenatal care at Primary Health Center in Thudiyalur and was full term.
At about 11 pm the day before yesterday, Jothi went into labour and was taken to Thudiyalur Government Primary Health Center by her husband Gautham in an auto. Due to nonavailability of doctors, the nurses there directed them to go to either Dhaliyur government hospital or Coimbatore government hospital.
Following this, as Jothi Kumari was in extreme pain, it was decided to take her to a private hospital nearby, but there too she was denied treatment as the hospital demanded COVID-19 test report per Health department's directive.
Gautam finally decided to go to the Government Hospital in Coimbatore and called 108. While waiting in the auto for the 108 ambulance, Jothikumari went into intense labour following which water broke and she delivered a baby girl.
Seeing the still intact umbilical cord on the baby and a lot of blood, Gautham and the auto driver took Jothi to the nearby Sai Hospital.
Despite COVID restrictions, the private hospital doctors treated the woman and removed the baby's umbilical cord. The healthy baby weighed a kilo and 700 grams. Subsequently, they were sent to the Dhaliyur Government Hospital for coronavirus examination.
The incident has drawn sharp criticism from many quarters including social activists. They accused the government of failing to keep the promise of 24-hour delivery support at primary health centres. People from Thudiyalur and its surroundings complain that this is the case often at Thudiyalur Primary Health Center. Most of the time the women in full term labour are either forced to go to Coimbatore or Dhaliyur.
They called for an immediate redressal of this problem citing that people who cannot afford healthcare at private hospitals have no other place than a government hospital or a primary health centre. The public also said that healthcare authorities must ensure that doctors are at work 24 hours a day as most of the underprivileged people prefer government hospitals because they are unable to afford health care at private hospitals.