Biratnagar, November 1

Tension ran high at Birat Nursing Home as relatives and family members staged a demonstration when a woman died after giving birth to a baby boy at the nursing home in Biratnagar today.

Ramila Karki, 20, of Ranigaun, Duhabi Municipality-8, was admitted to Birat Medical College on Tuesday due to labour pain. Karki had delivered the baby boy naturally. With the delivery of the baby, bleeding did not cease. As a result, the doctors had operated on Karki and removed her uterus.

Karki’s husband Bhupal Ghimire said Karki’s health deteriorated though doctors had told him that surgery was successful. After Karki did not regain consciousness, she was shifted to Birat Nursing Home, managed by the medical college, for further treatment.

She had died on Thursday night there. The new-born was kept at the intensive care unit, but the baby also died, according to Ghimire.

Relatives and family members staged a demonstration and shouted slogans stating that Karki had died due to negligence on part of doctors. They demanded action against doctors involved in the surgery and investigation into the incident.

They claimed that both mother and the new-born had died as trainee doctors were assigned the responsibility of performing surgery.

Relatives and family members have refused to accept the woman’s body. Security forces have been deployed to calm down the tension at the nursing home.

A team of doctors led by Dr Gyanendraman Singh Karki, who is also the proprietor of the nursing home and the medical college, had conducted surgery on Karki.

Dr Karki refuted the allegation that negligence had led to her death. “We did everything possible to save Karki’s life, but to no avail,” he said.