In a horrific incident in Pakistan, a doctor of a rural health centre in the Sindh province severed a newborn baby’s head and left it inside the mother’s womb, leaving the 32-year-old Hindu woman in a life-threatening situation.
The international pressure forced the Sindh government to form a medical inquiry board to get to the bottom of the incident and punish the culprits.
“The Bheel Hindu woman, who belongs to a far-flung village in Tharparkar district, had first gone to a Rural Health Centre (RHC) in her area but with no female gynaecologist available, the inexperienced staff caused her immense trauma,” Professor Raheel Sikander, the head of the gynaecology unit of the Liaquat University of Medical and Health Sciences (LUMHS) in Jamshoro, said while speaking to the media.
He added that the RHC doctor cut off the newborn baby’s head in the mother’s womb and left it inside her in a botched-up surgery conducted on Sunday.
The woman was rushed to a nearby hospital in Mithi where there were no facilities to treat her. She was saved from the life-threatening situation after her family took her to the LUMHS where the rest of the newborn’s body was taken out of the mother’s womb.
Sikandar also mentioned that the head of the baby was entrapped inside and the mother’s uterus had been ruptured, and they had to open up her abdomen surgically and take out the head to save her life.
After the terrific incident was reported, the Director-General of Sindh Health Services, Dr Juman Bahoto, ordered separate inquiries into the case.
He ensured that the inquiry committees would find out what happened along with the reason behind the absence of a gynaecologist and female staffers at the RHC in Chachro.
He also mentioned that the inquiry committees would also look into reports that the woman had to undergo the trauma of having her video taken while lying on a stretcher.
“Apparently, some members of the staff took her photos on a mobile phone in the gynaecology ward and shared those pictures with different WhatsApp groups,” Juman added
