Karnataka govt hospital staff leave 3-feet-long cloth inside woman’s body

A 20-year-old woman was overjoyed when she gave birth to a boy in a normal delivery at Government SNR Hospital in Kolar on May 5. However, her happiness was cut short as she started suffering from unbearable stomach pain four days later.
Chandrika of Ramasagara village in Malur taluk was prescribed topical medication by doctors of a nursing home. When her family members were applying the ointment, they had the shock of their lives when they found a piece of cloth sticking out of her vagina.They noticed that the cloth was found at the place where doctors of the govt hospital had made an incision to facilitate smoother delivery. With utmost care, they managed to pull out the cloth which turned out to be threefoot long.
Realising that doctors at SNR hospital had failed to remove the vaginal mop they had placed to prevent bleeding when they had made an incision during the delivery, Chandrika’s husband, Rajesh, a private firm employee, rushed to the hospital and lodged a complaint with district surgeon Dr SN Vijayakumar. He sought action against the staff for negli- gence. Rajesh told TOI his wife was in the hospital till May 7 and was asked to come back for check-up on May 17. The staff told them that the sutures were soluble and there was no needto remove them, he claimed.
Dr Vijayakumar said the woman gave birth to a boy at SNR hospital on May 5 morning and the doctor had placed a vaginal mop to prevent bleeding with an advice to the patient to get it removed while removing the sutures. “The doctor on duty had also instructed the staff nurse in this regard. However, the nurse seems to have forgotten or the patient might have not turned up for removal of the sutures,” he said.
He said a committee will conduct a probe and action will be taken against the errant staff based on the findings. “Chandrika is healthy and there’s no cause for concern,” he added.