UP: Pregnant woman runs for hospitals for 13 hrs, dies

An eight-month pregnant woman died in an ambulance in Noida after a frantic 13-hour hospital hunt failed to find her a bed as over half-a-dozen facilities denied her treatment, her family claimed on Saturday.

Neelam, 30, and her husband Vijender Singh, 30, knocked the doors of eight hospitals, including government ones, before she died in the ambulance outside a facility in Greater Noida on Friday, the family said.

Taking note of the death and the claim, the Gautam Buddh Nagar district administration ordered an inquiry into the matter.

A resident of Khoda colony on the Noida-Ghaziabad border, Neelam was eight months pregnant and undergoing treatment at Shivalik Hospital in Nodia, a private facility, for pregnancy-related complications, her husband said.

On Friday, the hospital refused to admit her and then they were forced to run from one facility to another, he added.

"We first went to the ESI hospital. Thereafter, we went to a hospital in Sector 30 (the Child PGI), from there we went to the Sharda Hospital and then to the Government Institute of Medical Sciences in Greater Noida. But all refused to admit her," the man is seen alleging in a video circulating on social media.

He said the family also tried to get admission in the private facility Jaypee, Fortis Hospital in Gautam Buddh Nagar and Max in Vaishali, Ghaziabad, but were allegedly told that no beds were available.

"Kul mila ke humari ambulance mein hi death ho gayi (ultimately, she died in the ambulance). Finally, we got to the GIMS where she was put on a ventilator but it was too late," he said.

Gautam Buddh Nagar District Magistrate Suhas L Y ordered a probe into the episode.

"Additional DM Munindra Nath Upadhyay and Chief Medical Officer Deepak Ohri will probe the matter. The DM has instructed them to immediately carry out a probe and take action," an official statement said.

This is at least the second instance within a fortnight when a life has been lost in Gautam Buddh Nagar due to unavailability of timely medical treatment.

On the night of May 25, a newborn child had died due to lack of medical support as his father kept running from one hospital to another between Greater Noida and Noida.

The district administration had carried out a probe in that matter too and pinned the fault on two private hospitals for alleged negligence.