tamil-nadu

Updated: Nov 22, 2019 12:12 IST

A nurse at a government-run primary health centre in Tamil Nadu’s Ramanathapuram district was suspended on Thursday after she forgot to remove a needle from the private parts of a 21-year-old woman, who was admitted for delivery on Tuesday.

Sources in the health department said K Ramya from Maravetti Valasai village was admitted in the Upgraded Primary Health Center (UPHC) at Uchippuli town in Ramanathapuram district on November 19 for delivery.

“An assistant surgeon named N Yasin and a nurse Anbu Selvi had conducted the delivery for Ramya on Tuesday night. A baby girl was born via normal delivery by 7.30pm on Tuesday. However, Ramya felt extreme pain and bleeding from vagina post-delivery,” her husband S Karthikeyan said.

When Ramya’s family raised the issue with UPHC doctors, they referred her to Ramanathapuram Government Hospital on Wednesday.

“In Ramanathapuram GH, the doctors did an X-Ray scan and found a broken suture needle inside the vagina,” Karthikeyan said.

As removing the suture needle is a complex process, Ramanathapuram doctors then asked her family to take her to Madurai Rajaji Government Hospital (MRGH) on Wednesday.

“After one-hour long surgery, a team of surgeons in MRGH removed the suture needle from Ramya’s body by 2.30pm on Thursday,” the deputy director of the health and family welfare department of Ramanathapuram district, P Kumarakurubaran, said.

Kumarakurubaran said the needle was broken when the nurse conducted an episiotomy.

An episiotomy is a procedure usually followed in normal deliveries. A surgical cut is made at the opening of the vagina during childbirth to aid a difficult delivery and prevent rupture of tissues. After the delivery, the cut is stitched.

“As the nurse stitched with the suture needle during the night, a part of the needle was broken. However, the nurse unknowingly stitched up after the procedure. So, the broken piece of the needle had got stuck inside the vagina,” the health department official said.

Kumarakurubaran said the needle had caused the pain and bleeding.

Relatives of Ramya gathered in front of the Uchippuli UPHC demanding that the government sack the nurse and the doctor.

“We have formed a high-level committee to inquire into this laxity. We have suspended the nurse from service,” Kumarakurubaran said.

“Also, we have recommended the Tamil Nadu health and family welfare department to initiate an action against the assistant surgeon who conducted the delivery,” he said.