Preeti was 20. She spent nearly 20 days on a ventilator at PBM Hospital in Bikaner after a caesarean delivery, and she died on Thursday. Hospital superintendent Dr Bhikam Chand Ghiya said early assessment pointed to multiple organ failure. Her kidneys had stopped working, he said, and doctors tried hard to stabilise her before she collapsed that afternoon.
She was the first death among six women who fell seriously ill at the hospital, Bikaner’s largest government facility. The six developed complications such as infections and kidney failure, and all were admitted to the intensive care unit at Sardar Patel Medical College.
What officials said at the start
PTI reported on June 9 that a committee had been set up. Health Minister Gajendra Singh Khimsar said specialist doctors had been sent from Jodhpur “to probe the entire matter.” He drew a line between this case and Kota, where five women died after caesarean surgeries. The Bikaner women, he said, arrived at different times and were treated under varying conditions, and not all of them had caesareans. Some had normal deliveries.
“We are investigating why kidney failure occurred in these cases,” Khimsar said. Samples of medicines and other materials used in the hospital were being collected for testing.
Dr Surendra Verma, principal of Sardar Patel Medical College, put it this way: “The exact cause can be ascertained only after the report is submitted.” Treatment and recovery came first, he added. Ghiya said teams from nephrology, gynaecology and medicine were treating the patients, and that “some patients required dialysis, which is being conducted regularly.” Nephrology professor Jitendra Falodiya said the women were in expert care.
Families and politics
A relative named Lekhram said the women were fine after delivery. Then came reduced urine output and other problems. “We want a fair inquiry so that the real cause is known and such incidents do not recur,” he said.
The opposition took the case up quickly. Tika Ram Jully, Leader of Opposition in the Rajasthan Assembly and a Congress leader, called it “the horrific outcome of the BJP government’s failed health policies, administrative negligence, and lack of accountability.” He accused the chief minister of covering up failures after Kota and Bikaner alike. The Congress blamed the ruling BJP government; the state’s response in the reports was the health minister’s statement that the two cases differ.
The investigation
Separate inquiry committees now exist at the hospital, the medical college and the state government. Verma said Preeti’s post-mortem findings would be reviewed along with results from the various panels and laboratories. Several lab and culture reports were still pending, and no firm conclusion on the cause had been reached.
The Jodhpur expert committee had already flagged problems at PBM Hospital: unsanitary conditions, infection in the operation theatre, no fumigation and no dedicated ICU for the gynaecology department. Test results on drug and IV fluid samples are still awaited and will go into the final report.
Sources
- 6 women develop complications after C-section deliveries at Bikaner hospital; probe ordered
- Woman dies after 20 days on ventilator, first fatality in Bikaner post-C-section kidney failure case
