Health Minister says no iota of negligence by GDH

SHILLONG, MAY 5: Minister in-charge Health and Family Welfare Ampareen Lyngdoh on Friday said there has been no act of negligence on the part of the Ganesh Das Hospital (GDH) in connection with the case of woman from Mawlyndep village, who recently had to be taken to NEIGRIHMS to remove a portion of a needle that was stuck inside her body during labour.

“Compensation does not arise at this point in time. Prima facie as I observed as minister of the state, there seems to be no negligence, no iota of negligence (in this case). So compensation does not arise,” Lyngdoh told reporters after visiting the mother at NEIGRIHMS.

She also informed that the patient is recovering very positively and that she is very stable.

When asked, the health minister said after gathering better information on this whole incident which occurred three-four days ago, the facts are now very clear.

“The patient went for a delivery (at Ganesh Das hospital). The patient has a history of high risk pregnancy. The patient got into a complicated situation where there was a problem with the delivery. The child was finally delivered but…the child had some complications right from the stage of birth. Now, post-delivery, the patient was kept under observation and subsequently there was bleeding and spotted that was discovered by the staff and reported by the patient.

The patient was taken back to the OT where a procedure had to start at the earliest to stop this bleeding and at the time of this procedure post-delivery there seems to have been a break of the needle which could not be located by the doctor administering this surgery or this procedure for this patient at the Ganesh Das facility. The doctor very correctly packed the patient quickly and did not pursue further in the location of this needle because you need a better imaging facility which was not available at the Ganesh Das facility. The patient was then quickly transported to NEIGRIHMS,” she said.

At the NEIGRIHMS, she further informed, “We are very grateful to the NEIGRIHMS facility as immediately imaging was done, the gyne department sprang into action and located the needle in the pelvic area of the patient. It is not true that the needle had travelled up.”

According to the minister, this kind of a situation is not an unusual occurrence and that such facts need to be clearly understood by the media, which is communicating this information to the public.