A poignant letter by a mourning father has shocked Kashmir as he accused the region’s main maternity hospital of medical negligence that caused the death of his new-born twins.
The letter, addressed to Governor Satya Pal Malik and written by a journalist Abid Sofi, was posted by him on the social media.
The letter accused the staff of the Lal Ded Hospital, the main maternity facility in Kashmir valley, and demanded an inquiry into the deaths “due to negligence”.
The hospital administration, however, said that the standard operating procedures (SOPs) were properly followed and that “it was impossible to save” the babies. “It was a 21-22 week pregnancy and the foetus had slipped into vagina, so the priority was to save the mother,” a senior doctor at the hospital said.
Investigation has been initiated into the matter after the letter surfaced on the social media and the report will be available within the next two days, the doctor said.
The complainant said the incident happened last month when his wife had contractions and a doctor diagnosed it as Braxton Hicks contraction. “To make sure my wife was alright, I decided to take her to Lal Ded Hospital, a decision I will have to live with the rest of my life,” he wrote.
Sofi further noted that doctors at the hospital “declared both the babies” dead without conducting an “ultrasound or other tests”. “When she protested against it and said she could still feel the movement of the children … she was slapped and asked to shut up or leave the hospital or die,” he wrote.
The journalist wrote that his wife was induced labour and the twins were delivered alive. They died in the ICU several hours later, he wrote.
Srinagar DC Shahid Chaudhry said he had received the letter through the social media. “An inquiry by the ADC will thoroughly probe the issue. Besides, I have asked for a report from the LD Hospital,” he said.
