Operation threatres in Niloufer Hospital sealed

Death of five women in the last ten days at State-run Niloufer Hospital after they delivered infants through caesarean sections has forced authorities on Monday to shut down the hospital’s operation theatres and postpone scheduled C-Sections.

The five women who had died were identified as Raina, Bushra Begum, Farah Fateema, Nusrat and Aneesha.  To find the exact cause of death of the women, the hospital authorities have set up a three-member committee of senior doctors who will conduct an enquiry and submit a detailed report at the earliest.

Between January 28 and February 4, the hospital doctors conducted close to 44 caesarean sections in the two operations theatres in question. Out of the 44 C-sections, five women died due to postpartum haemorrhage, which is non-stop bleeding after a C-section is performed.While the just-born infants are normal, the mothers died within 24 hours of giving birth due to uncontrolled bleeding.

“We did everything we could to stop the bleeding by



administering antibiotics and drugs meant to prevent bleeding. However, nothing seemed to work. The committee will look into all these aspects and try to find the exact reason for the deaths,” says Superintendent, Niloufer Hospital, Dr. Suresh Kumar.

The three-member committee to conduct the enquiry consists of Head of Anaesthesia, Osmania General Hospital (OGH), Dr. Deepraj Singh, Superintendent of Government Maternity Hospital in Petlaburj, Dr. Pratibha and Senior Gynaecologist from OGH, Dr, Rani.

The Committee will try to find out whether the unexplained deaths happened due to infection, excessive loss of blood during caesarean section, infection in the operation theatres or administration of ‘not of standard quality’ medicines.

Meanwhile, relatives of the deceased on Monday protested in the premises of Niloufer Hospital alleging that the hospital doctors were responsible for deaths. Normal functioning of the hospital was held-up for a while before normalcy prevailed.