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HC constitutes eight-member panel to audit civic-run maternity homes 

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The Bombay High Court on Wednesday (January 29, 2025) constituted an eight-member committee to conduct a social audit of 30 maternity and nursing homes run by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC). This move of the court has come after the death of a pregnant woman who was allegedly operated under a mobile phone’s flashlight due to power cut and inadequate infrastructure at a maternity home. Both the mother and her newborn had died in the process.  

A Division Bench of Justices Revati Mohite Dere and Neela Gokhale formed the committee after hearing a petition against Sushma Swaraj Maternity Home in Bhandup where a 26-year-old pregnant woman Shaheedunissa Ansari and her newborn died. The petition was filed by Khusruddin Ansari, husband of the deceased woman through advocate Gayatri Singh.  

After the suggestions from Ms. Singh and advocate Purnima H. Kantharia for the hospital and BMC, the Bench constituted a committee of Dr. Kamaxi Bhate, retired Professor of Community Medicine from civic-run KEM Hospital; Dr. Padmaja, Head of Gynecology at KEM Hospital; Dr. Reena Wani Cooper, Professor and HOD at Dr. R.N. Cooper Municipal General Hospital’s Gynecology Department; Brinelle D’Souza, Chairperson of Centre for Health and Mental Health at Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS); Sonya Gill, Vice-President of Akhil Bharatiya Janwadi Mahila Sanghatana (All India Democratic Women’s Association) and health and women’s rights advocate Sangeeta Rege. Two doctors from State-run Nair Hospital and J.J. Hospital will also be part of the committee.  

The Bench said that four teams of two doctors each will visit nursing homes to conduct a social audit as per Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs). The court also directed the committee to submit a report within eight weeks.  

Ms. Kantharia said that the audit will be conducted as per SOPs under LaQshya or Labour Room Quality Improvement Initiative of the Central Government to reduce preventable maternal and newborn mortality.  

The petitioner said that initially his wife was taken to Sushma Swaraj Maternity Home in Bhandup for the birth of the couple’s first child. On April 29, 2024, at 8:20 a.m. she was brought in the hospital and was allotted a labour ward only at 1:30 p.m. on the first floor of the maternity home.  

At 5:30 p.m. when the petitioner’s mother went to the labour ward to check on Shaheedunissa, she found her in a state of extreme distress due to labour pain. She approached Dr. Sanyal Kadam and Dr. Ritisha Rathod and requested them to perform a caesarean delivery to alleviate her pain, but the doctors assured her of a normal delivery. At 9:30 p.m., the petitioner was told that an episiotomy was done on his wife without the family’s prior consent. The episiotomy had caused substantial bleeding and resulted in blood loss. 

Around 10:15 p.m., the petitioner was told that the heartbeat of the foetus was at a mere 40 beats per minute and a caesarean delivery would have to be carried out to save the mother and child. Around 10:30 p.m., Shaheedunissa was shifted to the operating theatre and for that she was made to walk with the support of her family members while she continued to bleed, there were no stretchers or wheelchairs. Shortly after that, there was a power cut. In the absence of power backup, the caesarean section was carried out using the flashlight of mobile phones in the operating theatre, the petition alleges. 

At 11 p.m. the baby was declared dead. Shaheedunissa, whose condition was critical, was then transferred to the Lokmanya Tilak General Hospital in Sion where she was declared dead at 1:30 p.m. on April 30, 2024.  

The petitioner also stated that he was denied medical records from both the hospitals whereas medical ethics regulations clearly mandate issuing of medical records within 72 hours of a request.  

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