Naifaru hospital accused of negligence in unborn child's death

Staff at the Lhaviyani Atoll Hospital at Naifaru island are facing allegations of negligence after a woman lost her unborn child while being treated there.

Zaaimaa Ismail, who was treated at the hospital before travelling to capital city Malé, found out about the death of her fetus from doctors at the Indira Gandhi Memorial Hospital.

Mohamed Ahmed, Zaaimaa’s husband, spoke to RaajjeMV and said that doctors at the hospital in Naifaru told them that the fetus is alive and healthy, but was asked ‘to urgently seek treatment in Malé’.

“They told us that the child was healthy, that the mother is healthy. But asked us to go seek a doctor in Malé, why would we need to if everything is fine” Ahmed said.

He further said that he had asked the hospital’s senior administrative officer Abdul Waheed Mohamed to setup of means of having the trip to and treatment at Malé covered by Aasandha, which the officer had refused to do.

Ahmed had managed to secure enough to fund the trip to Malé and on Thursday sought a doctor at the state-operated Indira Gandhi Memorial Hospital, who told them that the fetus was no longer alive.

While the fetus is yet to be removed, the family is delaying it on account of religion and it being Friday, they can have the matter further investigated after doing so.

Zaaimaa is also diabetic and had been treated at the ADK Hospital in the capital city, who gave her insulin injections. After having gone to Lhaviyani Atoll Hospital to get more, they told them that they cannot administer it on account of being ‘unfamiliar’.