Bhuwneshwar: A pregnant woman and her unborn child died after being allegedly kicked and slapped by a nurse at a government-run hospital in Odisha’s tribal-dominated Mayurbhanj district. Debjani Singh, 25, from Kainsali village under Badasahi block in Mayurbhanj district, was yesterday kicked by the nurse and forced to sleep on the floor from the bed, alleged her sister-in-law Astami Singh in an FIR.
Debjani was admitted to the district headquarter hospital at Baripada town on Sunday evening for the birth of her child. However, the doctor on duty reportedly asked her to wait till Monday for child delivery. At around 2 am when Debjani went into labour, ASHA worker Vishakha Mahanta who had accompanied her, called for a nurse.
Chanchala Das, a nurse who was on dury at that time, reportedly abused her for raising hell and asked the ASHA worker to take Debjani to labour room. The nurse, however, got enraged over the delay and hit the pregnant woman with her chappal and kicked her. On Monday morning when the doctor arrived and took Debjani to labour room, she delivered a stillborn baby but died after a few hours.
“The nurse verbally abused me and Debjani and called us uncivilised. She spread out a bedsheet and forced Debjani to lie on the floor,” the ASHA worker alleged. In the FIR lodged before the Baripada town police station, the sister-in-law of the deceased alleged that even after both the mother and the child died, the hospital staff demanded money to move the body.
Tension ran high in the hospital premises as the enraged family members and locals demanded action against the nurse. Bariada sub-collector Digant Routray said the nurse has been suspended and a departmental inquiry has been ordered into the incident. The incident comes a few days after a newborn died after the driver of a state-run ambulance service refused to put oxygen on newborn without cash.
Bureau Report
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