DEHRADUN: In a shocking incident that puts the spotlight on threadbare health facilities in the hill state, a 27-year-old woman , who allegedly waited for six days to get a bed in the biggest government hospital in the Garhwal region, Dehradun’s Government Doon Medical College Hospital (GDMCH), died soon after giving birth on the floor in a corridor of the hospital on Thursday. The child also did not survive.An angry crowd soon gheraoed the office of the chief medical superintendent and dispersed only after police were called.The husband of the woman, Suresh Singh Rana, who hailed from Chinyalisaud in Uttarkashi and worked as a labourer in Mussoorie, said that the child , a boy, struggled for 20 minutes before breathing its last and alleged apathy by the hospital staff.“I informed the nurse who was on duty, but instead of helping my wife she ignored me and got busy on her mobile,” Rana added.The hospital administration, meanwhile, said that the woman had been given a bed in the labour room. “She was given a bed in the labour room. She was severely anaemic and was carrying a dead foetus. We had treated her before the incident. She had been administered two units of blood and when we tried to administer the third one to her she had walked out of the labour room, probably out of anxiety,” said Dr Meenakshi Joshi, CMS, women’s wing of the hospital. She added that a three-member committee would investigate the matter.The husband alleged that the hospital authorities were lying. “She was not given a bed. She had been lying on the floor of the women’s wing. We were told to take her to another hospital, but I had no money,” he said.His version was supported by other patients and their attendants at the hospital, many of whom protested against the incident soon after.“I saw the woman lying in a corridor of the hospital for the past few days. None of the staff members came when the husband was crying for help,” said an attendant.In December 2017, TOI had reported that the hospital had kept its antenatal and prenatal care wards shut for almost five months as they did not have an electricity connection. As a result of that pregnant women and new mothers cradling infants in their arms were lying on the corridor in biting cold.

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