Hyderabad: A 33-year-old pregnant woman with 33 weeks gestation from Bidar district was recently rushed to the emergency department of Continental Hospitals in Hyderabad, with a cardiac arrest. The patient, along with high blood pressure, and altered liver enzymes, had low blood platelet count and pulmonary edema putting her and the foetus’ life at risk.
The patient travelled over 100 kilometers from Bidar to Hyderabad. The pregnant lady was immediately resuscitated by securing airway through endotracheal intubation in the ER to save her life. An emergency caesarean section was performed to deliver the pre-term baby. The mother, on delivering the child, suffered cardiac arrest for the second time.
A team of Emergency Physicians, Intensivists, Obstetrics, and Anesthetists attended to the patient right from the beginning to provide the best clinical care. Now both the mother and the child are recovering and are under constant observation and have been discharged in a stable condition.
Commenting on this case and the reasons, Dr. Sree Sowjanya Patibandla, Senior Consultant & HOD – Emergency & Trauma Services, said, “The fear of Covid-19 pandemic is leading people to not visit Doctors or hospitals even when in an emergency state of health. And it is this fear-led negligence, that is leading cause of complication resulting in deaths; and the Society for Emergency Medicine in India estimated that there is a 45% rise in non-Covid-19 preventable brought dead cases in Hyderabad hospitals in the month of April and May. Had these patients been brought to the right hospital in time, their lives could have been saved.”
“Since the time lockdown was announced in the country, emergency healthcare services are functioning with redefined measures to reduce the risk of infectious diseases transmission. The lockdown has helped in reducing the deaths due to road accidents; however, other emergencies like chest pain, paralysis stroke, household accidents like falls, burns, and electric shocks are on the rise. Obstetric emergencies like impending labour, eclampsia, bronchial asthma, COPD are a few conditions that mandate early and appropriate intervention which is being neglected leading to serious complications. Hence, it is important that patients take an informed and medically advised decision on visiting a hospital or not,” added Dr. Sree Sowjanya Patibandla.
“This patient was brought to our hospital in an unconscious state as she was not able to get the appropriate care even after traveling 100 kilometers. This is a classic case of our belief i.e. exceptional clinical outcomes can only be achieved through collaborative clinical practice, teamwork, and a quest for clinical excellence. We could save the patient even from a highly critical state through the coordinated efforts of specialists from Emergency & Trauma, Anesthesiology, Gynecology, Neonatology, Blood bank, and Critical Care. Obviously, the availability of world-class infrastructure plays a vital role in the diagnosis and treatment of such complex ailments,” commented Dr. Rahul Medakkar.