Four years after newborn died, doctor booked for negligence

As per the statement given by Shabira’s brother Imran Khan, a scrap dealer from Govandi, Shabira who had a son, was pregnant in 2018 and consulted a doctor at Shabnam hospital.

On March 21, 2019, around 10 pm, Shabira experienced abdominal pain and was brought to Shabnam Hospital for treatment. Gulnar Gulzar Shaikh, the doctor on duty, examined her and admitted her to the delivery ward.

No other doctor was present during the examination, the woman’ brother said in his statement to police. “She examined my sister and due to some complication, left the delivery halfway,” he told police.

“Later Dr Gulnar pushed my sister’s stomach to deliver the baby. She gave birth to a son. But due to the lack of proper treatment or due to excessive pressure on the abdomen, the baby could not breathe,” Imran said in the FIR.
The condition of the baby was critical, but there was no system to give oxygen to the newborn in the said hospital.
The doctor advised Imran to take his sister’s baby to Muskan Hospital for further treatment.

“Dr Gulnar did not provide any nurse to take my sister’s baby to Muskan Hospital or arrange an ambulance,” Imran said. The doctor on duty at Muskan Hospital examined the baby and declared him dead.

Police sent the newborn’s body for postmortem to Rajawadi hospital and later asked a panel of doctors from JJ Hospital to submit a report, which eventually arrived on July 14.

The police then contacted Imran and showed him the report which said, “There is mismanagement on the part of treating doctors in this case amounting to gross negligence.”

Based on this, police registered an FIR on charges of causing death due to negligence. When contacted, Imran said, “My sister passed away due to an illness last year. While her husband now lives at his native place, her five-year-old son stays with us at Govandi.”

An officer said that a few more persons could be charged in the case.