4 hospitals in 30 hours, but 20-year-old pregnant Palghar woman still dies

The poor state of health infrastructure in tribaldominated Palghar district once again stands exposed as a 20yearold pregnant woman had to run from one hospital to another and died in a hospital in Silvassa a city in neighbouring Dadra and Nagar Haveli hours after delivering a dead baby in Dahanu Her family members said they had first taken her to the Rural Hospital in Palghar but were told to go to another hospital as it did not have the facility for a caesarean deliveryThe family of the woman who was impregnated by a 25yearold married neighbour in her village in Jawhar Taluka of Palghar district in August last year had to go to four different hospitals in 30 hours from one night to the nextmdashthree in the state and the last one in the neighbouring Union TerritoryldquoShe was sexually abused on multiple occasions but could not narrate her ordeal as she is deaf and mute and was not expressive through sign languagerdquo her mother told middayThe deceased womanHer parents learnt about her pregnancy only after the baby bump was visible after a few months said a neighbour ldquoDuring sonography it was confirmed that she was pregnant and doctors suggested that they donrsquot opt for abortion as it could be detrimental to her health So her parents had taken her along to the place where they work on daily wages in Palghar townrdquo said another neighbourNo Csection facilityOn the night of April 10 the woman started having severe pain which led the family to rush her to the nearest hospitalThe brotherinlaw of the deceased told midday ldquoWe reached Palghar Rural Hospital at 8 pm The doctors told us that she needed to have a Csection and that the facility was not available there and referred us to another hospitalrdquoThe womanrsquos parents and the neighbour who impregnated her right PicsHanif PatelldquoWe reached Cottage Hospital in Dahanu at 2 am on April 11 in a hospital ambulance There the doctors checked her and said that the condition of the baby was alarming as foetal heart rate was not detected They also said that a caesarean delivery was required and while they had the facility they referred us to another hospital saying they did not have a neonatal unit required to take care of premature babiesrdquo said the father of the deceasedHer grieving mother told midday ldquoAfter the doctor referred us to another hospital again we went to the private hospital in Dahanu around 430 am She was admitted there and just a few minutes later we were told that she delivered a dead boyrdquo ldquoThough we were sad we thanked God as my daughter was still alive But her condition started deteriorating rapidly with heavy vaginal bleedingrdquo she addedVivek Pandit chairman of a governmentappointed committee to look into the status of schemes for tribals in the stateHad to travel outside stateldquoSince there is no civil hospital in Palghar and we cannot afford the high cost of private hospitals we rushed her to a civil hospital in Silvassa which is comparatively closer to Dahanu than any other big hospitalsrdquo said her brotherinlawThe woman finally reached the Civil Hospital Silvassa in the afternoon on April 11 and was admitted there The doctors had immediately asked her family members to arrange two bottles of blood as she was bleeding profuselyldquoWe somehow managed to arrange the blood amid panic but she breathed her last around 2 am on April 12 We lost both my daughter and her baby despite running from one hospital to another in distressrdquo said her father a daily wage workerThe provisional death report states that she ldquodied of Postpartum Haemorrhage PPHrdquo Samples of her blood intrauterine foetal death IUFD bones etc have been preserved for DNA analysisHer brotherinlaw said ldquoWhatrsquos the use of a hospital if there is no health infrastructure available The big buildings at Rural Hospital of Palghar and Cottage Hospital in Dahanu are nothing but empty structures There is no guarantee if the patient will survive but you will surely lose precious time in times of emergency We are poor and nobody cares about our conditionsrdquoldquoI feel sorry that I could do nothing good for my daughter She was born in a poor family and was deaf and mute Later she was impregnated by a neighbour Just to keep her safe we had taken her to a place where we work as daily wage workers We were happy that she will have a child to look after her when we die But the poor health facilities led to her deathrdquo said her sobbing motherlsquoNeed inquiryrsquoSita Ghatal the incharge of a trust that provides free medical care to malnourished children and their mothers in Jawhar taluka told midday ldquoWe are wondering why the patient was turned away and referred to another hospital as I have learnt that there is a facility at Palghar Rural Hospital to treat Csection patients The authority concerned must conduct a thorough inquiry into the matterrdquoVivek Pandit chairman of a governmentappointed committee to look into the status of schemes for tribals in Maharashtra said ldquoPalghar is a tribal dominated area and most of them are poor and cannot afford private hospitals But the government health infrastructure is in a very bad shape where doctors are seldom available patients are not given ambulances on time There is also no civil hospital in Palghar So the residents have to go from one to the other seeking treatmentrdquoldquoHere in Palghar tribals are dying like animals I donrsquot know what the government is doing to safeguard the hamlets in Palghar which is hardly 100 km away from Mantralaya Just think about the state of other districts thenrdquo Pandit addedDoctor SpeakThe civil surgeon of Palghar district Dr Sanjay Bodade told midday ldquoIt was a case of a teenage pregnancy which is very common in tribal areas Though her parents claim she was 20years old she was a teenager It was a very complicated case which could not have been handled at the Rural Hospital or Cottage Hospitallevelrdquo The foetus was at risk and such cases can only be managed at multispeciality or medical college hospitalsrdquoldquoWe have been counselling tribals in different hamlets not to marry off their teenage children as teenage pregnancy becomes extremely complicated to handle especially when we are yet to come up with a civil hospitalrdquo he said adding that a civil hospital is proposed to come up at Nandore in Palghar taluka and the proposal is pending at the state level2 amTime on April 12 when the woman died