SHILLONG, May 5: Health Minister Ampareen Lyngdoh on Friday said the government is open to an independent inquiry into the freak incident, where a broken part of a needle had got stuck inside the body of a pregnant woman during labour, if the family is unhappy with what has been done so far.
The incident occurred at the Ganesh Das Hospital on May 1. The needle part was removed after a surgery at NEIGRIHMS.
After visiting the woman admitted at NEIGRIHMS, Lyngdoh said the internal inquiry report is ready and the statements of the doctors and the staff concerned have been collected and understood.
She further said that as it stands, there was no gross negligence as far as the breaking of the needle during the procedure is concerned.
“However, we can still have an independent inquiry if the patient party is not accepting the steps taken,” Lyngdoh said, adding it took time to collect the correct information and understand what exactly happened.
Stating that the facts are now very clear, she said the patient has a history of high-risk pregnancies.
“The patient got into a complicated situation. The child was finally delivered but resuscitation was a necessity. So obviously, the child also had some complications, right from the stage of work,” she said.
Lyngdoh said post-delivery, the woman was kept under observation and subsequently, bleeding was discovered by the staff and the same was reported by the patient. She further said the patient was taken back to where the procedure had to be started to stop bleeding.
“At the time of this procedure, there seems to have been a break of a needle which could not be located by the doctor administering the surgery or procedure,” she said.
She said the doctor correctly did not pursue further in locating the needle as that required a better imaging facility but it was not available at the hospital. She said the patient was then quickly shifted to NEIGRIHMS.
“We are grateful to NEIGRIHMS since imaging was done. Gynaecology department had sprung into action and located the needle in the patient’s pelvic area,” she said. She claimed that such an incident is not unusual and it happens everywhere, although rare. She said the life of the patient could be saved due to the timely action of the staff of Ganesh Das Hospital.
“There was no attempt to forcefully locate the needle which was the best thing done. As we do not have this facility, they correctly transported the patient to a higher facility like NEIGRIHMS. Now, we put this behind us because there has been no appearance of gross negligence,” Lyngdoh reiterated.
She said the needle had nothing to do with the death of the newborn.
Stating that the infant had a difficult birth, Lyngdoh said complications were immediately noted and the baby also was sent to a higher facility for a better chance of survival.
The Minister said the patient told her that her MHIS is not linked to Aadhaar. She is a little disturbed over her medical expenses, Lyngdoh said.
“But I’m grateful that NEIGRIHMS has come forward to assure the government that they will do the MHIS linkage or find a way out to help the patient party,” the minister, who has offered the woman some financial assistance, said.
She said the question of compensation does not arise as apparently there was no negligence.
