A week since unborn child’s death, yet to be removed

The family of Zaeema Ismail, who’s unborn child was declared dead a week ago, has expressed concern over the delay in removing the baby.

Zaeema, who was treated at the Naifaru Hospital before travelling to capital city Malé, found out about the death of her fetus from doctors at the Indira Gandhi Memorial Hospital (IGMH) on Thursday.

When a RaajjeMV reporter visited her in hospital on Saturday, she was seated in front of IGMH’s scanning room with her husband, a nurse or a hospital employee was not seen with her. Zaeema, who was admitted at the hospital, was taken there for a scan. She was able to go in for the scan 30 minutes after being taken into the scanning room. RaajjeMV’s reporter saw her in tears as she left the room. He also saw her take a seat after a few steps, out of apparent fatigue.

Standing in front of the scanning room as he waited for Zaeema, Mohamed Ahmed spoke to the RaajjeMV reporter, expressing concern over the delay in getting the dead fetus removed from his wife’s body.

Ahmed told RaajjeMV that the baby is believed to have died last Sunday, adding that his wife’s health condition ‘has been worsening’ due to the failure to remove the baby.

Noting that the hospital had previously said that it will be removed in Saturday, Ahmed further expressed concern over IGMH’s decision to delay it to Sunday.

“What we are seeing is that doctors are not showing up because its is the weekend. Hence, the caesarean has been moved to Sunday,” he said.

Zaeema had previously told RaajjeMV that she had gone to doctors at the hospital in Naifaru, who told that there were no issues with her baby, and that it was ‘alive and healthy’. As a person who has diabetes, Zaeema had been administered an injection in ADK Hospital previously, for the safety of both her and the b unborn child. While ADK had advised Naifaru Hospital to administer the injection as well, Zaeema said that the hospital had refused to do so.

While the hospital said that her unborn child was well, it also advised her ‘to urgently seek treatment in Malé’.

When contacted by RaajjeMV for a comment over the matter, Naifaru Hospital, who has been accused of negligence in the unborn child’s death, said that they cannot say anything without the Health Ministry’s approval.

The hospital’s senior administrative officer, Umar Ibrahim told RaajjeMV that they have held a meeting over the issue, and that the details of the meeting will be share with the ministry.

RaajjeMV was unable to get a comment from the ministry, with Minister Nazim Ibrahim ignoring our calls and messages as well.