Jaipur: A 26-year-old pregnant woman from Kaimasa village in Alwar’s Govindgarh area died on July 29 after a 48-hour ordeal, during which her family’s frantic but futile search for care took her across four separate healthcare facilities.Amid confusion over referrals and ambulance rules – and despite traversing a community health centre, two private hospitals and a govt women’s hospital – she could not be saved and finally died at the NIMS Hospital in Jaipur.Rachna, wife of Vijay Singh, had been around 14 to 16 weeks pregnant with her third child. Health department records show she was duly registered on the Pregnancy and Child Tracking System nearly 12 weeks earlier.Her Mamta Card shows her as having received both tetanus toxoid vaccinations, records her haemoglobin level as moderately anaemic and indicates hers had not been marked as a high-risk pregnancy.The crisis began on the evening of July 27, when her family told officials she developed severe abdominal pain and bleeding. She was taken to the Govindgarh community health centre (CHC) the same night, where doctors administered primary treatment before referring her to Alwar’s Zenana Hospital due to excessive bleeding and overall critical condition.“Her platelet count was 27,000 per microlitre, which is severely low, and she was also suffering from renal failure. She was referred to the Zenana Hospital as there was no operation theatre at the Govindgarh CHC,” said Alwar chief medical and health officer (CMHO) Yogendra Sharma.What followed was a night of desperate movement and disputed decisions.The family alleges that repeated referrals and delays worsened Rachna’s condition. Inquiry records, however, state that the family was advised to use the 108 ambulance service to shift her to the Zenana Hospital in Alwar. Instead, the family took her to Sahara Hospital, a private facility.Here, Rachna was treated for several hours and underwent several medical procedures, but her condition remained critical. Around 11am on July 28, she was once again referred to Alwar’s Zenana Hospital.Doctors here gave her blood and platelet transfusions, with officials noting that she developed severe renal complications. Her condition continued to decline through the day, and she was finally referred to SMS Hospital in Jaipur before midnight.Her family, however, did not take her to SMS Hospital, admitting her instead at the city’s NIMS Hospital, where she died around 6pm on July 29.Following her death, an official inquiry into the GVK-EMRI emergency response system found that Rachna’s family made no call to the 108 ambulance service following her referral from Govindgarh CHC to the Zenana Hospital.Ambulance staff told officials the family approached them directly and requested that she be taken to a private facility instead. As govt rules do not permit movement by a 108 ambulance to a facility other than the one the patient has been referred to, the request was refused.Officials found that Rachna’s family then arranged a private ambulance to shift her to Sahara Hospital.
