Doctors’ negligence alleged for deaths of woman, newborn

A woman and her newborn died yesterday at a 500-bed general hospital in Dhaka’s Mugda allegedly due to negligence and ill-treatment of doctors.

The victim Fatema Akther Kona, 24, was the wife of Tarequl Hasan, a resident of the capital's Jatrabari.

Tareq filed a case with Mugda police accusing four doctors – Dr Tanzina, Dr Shumi, Dr Anis and Dr Mousumi. Police raided the hospital and sent the body for a post-mortem examination.

Mugda police OC Enamul Haque said they would wait for the autopsy report and then take necessary actions. “We are trying to identify those responsible but none has been arrested so far,” he told the Dhaka Tribune last night.

The doctors, who are believed to be on the run, could not be contacted while the hospital declined comment.

Tareq said during last week’s scheduled check-up doctors had told them that their baby would be born in mid-April. “I rushed my wife to the hospital in the evening shortly after she complained of pain in her belly on Sunday afternoon. Dr Tanzina checked her and said they would need to conduct an emergency operation for delivering the baby,” he told the Dhaka Tribune.

He continued: “When I pointed out that doctors had said the expected delivery date was in April, she told me that there had been some complications which warranted an operation.”

Kona was taken to the operation theatre at around 9:30pm and the four doctors emerged from there about two hours later. Dr Mousumi had told him that the operation was still going on.

“But no doctor was inside the OT. Half an hour later, another doctor at the hospital asked one of my neighbours, who was accompanying me, to keep me company and help me stay calm as Kona had died during the operation,” he said.

Tareq said he contacted police after the hospital’s security guards stopped him from seeing his wife in the operation theatre.