The woman who gave birth to a child by a roadside in Ghotki on Friday has died of complications developed due to lack of medical facilities.
Rehmat Khatoon had given birth to a boy at a bus stop near the Khangarh taluka hospital, after she was told to go a private hospital as the state-run facility had no female doctor. She had gone to the government hospital alone from the Somar Mori village some 12 kilometres from Khanpur Mahar.
The child died as he could not be looked after properly. Khatoon went home after a couple of hours and her husband, Pathan Maganhar, took her to a hospital in Rahim Yar Khan. The man, however, left Khatoon at her parents’ home as he was broke. The woman’s father, Shahan Maganhar, could also not manage her expenses as he is unemployed. The woman had three more children.
The taluka hospital, Sheikh Hamdan Bin Mohammad Hospital, has had no female doctor for the past two decades. “I have written a dozen letters to the district health hospital to appoint a lady doctor at the hospital, but the authorities have not replied,” said the medical superintendent, Muhammad Usman Makko.
Published in The Express Tribune, August 30th, 2012.
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