Woman dies after childbirth at Dangar PHC, negligence alleged

SHILLONG, June 6: In a tragic incident, a 28-year-old woman died shortly after childbirth on June 3 at the Dangar primary health centre under Mawsynram C&RD Block, in an alleged case of negligence on the part of the doctor and nurses.
Mawsynram MLA, Himalaya M Shangpliang shared details of the incident on Sunday and asked the Health department to constitute an inquiry into the circumstances leading up to the death of the deceased, Munni Marak shortly after giving birth. The Dangar PHC is presently being run by the Voluntary Health Association of Meghalaya (VHAM).
Shangpliang also said that the Assembly Committee on Women Empowerment has summoned officials of the Health department on Monday.
The legislator revealed that he learnt of the incident after family members of the deceased met him on Saturday. “The doctor claimed that the woman had died of complications due to the premature delivery; even though she experienced labour pain through the night of June 2,” he claimed.
According to him, the family members had woken up the doctor and the nurse at around 5 am on June 3 when the woman complained of labour pain. “She delivered the baby in the ward before the staff could shift her to the labour room and died shortly afterwards,” Shangpliang added.
According to him, the family members are infuriated over this incident and had stated that if the child had been born at home the mother would have been alive.
“It is for this reason that people shy away from institutional delivery even though home deliveries often pose risks for both the mother and child,” he said.
Asserting that this was not the first time such an incident has occurred at a health centre, Shangpliang said, “The government should run the PHCs on its own instead of handing them over to NGOs.”