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The Health department has set up a four-member external panel of experts to inquire into the incident wherein a 26-year-old woman, who had given birth at SAT Hospital two weeks ago, died of post-partum sepsis on Sunday. The experts’ panel is headed by Sangeetha Menon, Head of the department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at the Alappuzha Government Medical College. The other members are Saji Kumar, Head of General Surgery; Latha, Head of Anaesthesiology and Critical Care, both from the Alappuzha MCH; and Juby John, Head of Infectious Diseases at the Kottayam Government Medical College. The inquiry report is expected to be submitted on Friday. The external panel was set up to look into the incident as the deceased woman’s family had demanded that an inquiry be conducted by an external medical body in full compliance with the guidelines issued by the Supreme Court in investigations into allegations of medical negligence. The death of Sivapriya of Karikkakam had triggered much protests with the woman’s family alleging that she had contracted the infection in the hospital, a possibility that had been ruled out by the SAT Hospital authorities. The woman, who had a normal delivery on November 25 at the hospital, had been re-admitted with high fever, diarrhoea and in a state of septic shock on November 26. While the woman’s family now allege that she had had fever when she was discharged, the discharge summary at SAT Hospital makes no mention of this. A possibility Doctors who treated Sivapriya had ruled out all possibilities of her contracting the infection intra-partum from the labour room. They said that the woman had been suffering from diarrhoea when she was brought back to the hospital and that in all likelihood, the sutures on the episiotomy (surgical incision put on the perineum to aid delivery) had got infected because of the soiling. They also pointed out that 17 other women had given birth at SAT Hospital on the same day and that none of them had reported with any health issues later. The post-mortem examination of Sivapriya was done in the presence of the RDO on Monday and the body released to the relatives.
