During her 13th delivery, a 30-year-old tribal woman died at an Udaipur hospital after she developed complications following the birth of a baby boy at a health centre in Dungarpur.
Sources said, only nine of her children – six girls and three boys – are alive now.
Sharda Meena, wife of Vesat Meena, a resident of Bhojata Fala Wadi in Dungarpur, was admitted to the Masana sub-health centre under the Ramgarh primary health centre in Dungarpur on November 1. However, the medical staff attending her at the centre did not know that it was her 13th delivery. Sharda delivered a baby on November 5 but then she began bleeding excessively and as complications arose, she was rushed to Udaipur where she breathed her last.
“The woman began suffering from anemia after a loss of blood during child birth leading to her death,” said Dr Rajaram Meena, chief medical and health officer, Dungarpur. “We have constituted a committee for a detailed probe. The case has been discussed twice during review meetings in the past two days. Once the committee submits its report on Friday, we will take necessary action,” he said.
The CMHO is also probing the age of the woman as many feel that it was difficult for a woman to give 13 consecutive births. “Though the records at the sub-health centre, filled by the deceased’s husband, claim that she was 30, we are probing it. We are also probing as to whether the couple had migrated to Dungarpur for work from somewhere outside,” said an official.
Vesat Meena, a daily wager, hid the fact that it was her 13th delivery and in the admission slip of the sub-health centre mentioned a much less number, sources said. “We were unaware of the entire episode and I came to know about the incident only on Monday when the ANM had come here to register the maternal mortality,” said Dr. Pankaj Pandya of Ramgarh primary health centre.
Pandya then reported the matter at the review meeting held the next day which was then taken up seriously. “It is the failure of concerned staff in counseling the woman, who had been pregnant 12 times earlier. Her death after child birth is even more serious. The committee will find out who were the people responsible for negligence and disciplinary action will be taken,” said a medical officer. However, sources claimed that the ANM at the sub-health centre was in know of things from the start as she had nursed Sharda Meena on the ninth month of her pregnancy. But she preferred to keep it under wraps. The ANM, sources claimed, has been transferred.
