A pregnant woman from Malappuram district in Kerala lost her unborn twins on Sunday after she had been turned away by three hospitals. They had died following an emergency c-section.
20-year-old Shahala had recovered from coronavirus and had been discharged on September 15. She had contracted labour pain on September 26 and been taken to Manjeri Medical College hospital, where she had been refused treatment because she had previously been diagnosed with coronavirus. She had gone to other private hospitals following who had also refused treatment.
Her husband Shareef told the media that the hospital turned them away stating that they only treat coronavirus positive patients. She was later referred to the Kottaparambu government hospital in Kozhikode. When the couple reached the Kottaparambu hospital on Saturday afternoon, they were reportedly told that there were no doctors at the gynaecology department and were asked to go to the Kozhikode Medical College hospital.
“Can you imagine the pain when the amniotic sac is ruptured and water flows and the hospital still refuses treatment asking, “are you a COVID patient?”. All of this my wife had to endure. We didn’t even get justice from a government hospital. We had to travel hours together to get my wife, who was 9 months pregnant, admitted to a hospital. This did not happen in Uttar Pradesh. It happened in Malappuram and Kozhikode,” NC Shareef stated in a social media post.
Health Minister KK Shailaja has assured that proper action will be taken against the hospitals that had denied treatment, adding that alleged lapses from any hospital will be probed.