Six women, aged between 20 and 27, are in the intensive care unit at PBM Hospital in Bikaner. All six are on dialysis. Each gave birth by caesarean section, and each then went downhill, one after another.
Two are on ventilators. Sharda, 26, from Shriramsar, was admitted on June 3 and had her C-section the next day. About two hours later she deteriorated. By the morning of June 5 she was in the ICU with several organs failing, the kidneys among them, and doctors diagnosed HELLP syndrome. Preeti, 20, is the second woman on a ventilator. Both have had convulsions.
The others are Imrati, 20, whose kidneys stopped working after she was admitted on June 1; Taradevi, who went in on May 24; and Rahila, who delivered on the day of admission, June 3, before her condition worsened. The Times of India said the four women not on ventilators are stable but remain in intensive care. The New Indian Express reported a long list of symptoms across the group: urinary retention, a sharp fall in platelet counts and acute kidney injury.
What the doctors say
Nobody has named a cause yet. Dr Surendra Verma, who heads Sardar Patel Medical College, told reporters that acute kidney injury has many possible triggers. He listed infection in the operating theatre, a reaction to medication, trouble during childbirth, or something else entirely. “The actual cause behind the worsening condition of these patients will only become clear once the inquiry report is available,” he said.
Dr B.C. Ghiya, the hospital superintendent, said a joint team from nephrology, gynaecology and medicine is treating the women. Another doctor, Dr Santosh Khajotia, noted that infection is not the only route to kidney failure, and that heavy bleeding could play a part as well.
Officials have turned to the medicine cabinet. Drug controllers pulled 31 medicines from the hospital’s shelves and seized them so nothing more is given from those stocks while tests run. The medical education department set up a committee to check whether any drug used during or after the operations could be involved. Officials stressed that no conclusion on medicine safety has been drawn.
A pattern families are watching
This is not the first alarm in Rajasthan this year. The Bikaner cases surfaced within a month of a Kota tragedy, where five women died after C-sections in a government hospital. In that case, the state handed the negligence inquiry to AIIMS Delhi. Its report found that oxytocin injections given to stop bleeding lacked essential components, and a company based in Amritsar lost its license after the Rajasthan Drugs Department complained.
Relatives in Bikaner are asking for the same kind of clarity. Imrati’s family says her condition was normal at first, then turned suddenly. They also allege the administration and doctors tried at first to keep the matter quiet. A relative of Imrati put the demand simply: “We want an impartial investigation into the entire matter so that the true cause comes to light and such an incident does not recur.”
The inquiry committee has yet to report. Dialysis continues, and a medical board now oversees the women’s care.
Sources
- Six women develop kidney-related complications following C-section deliveries in Bikaner's PBM hospital
- Probe launched after 6 C-section patients land in ICU at Bikaner's PBM Hospital; 31 drugs seized
- Six Women Develop Kidney Failure After C-Sections At Bikaner's PBM Hospital
