Indian woman in UK forced to carry dead fetus in womb for two days

October 13, 2013

Indian_womanChennai, Oct 13: An Indian woman in the UK was forced to carry a dead fetus in her womb for two days after doctors at the hospital ignored signs of its death and sent her back home.

Niranjana Kumaresan, a 33-year-old woman hailing from Chennai, filed a complaint with UK's National Health Service (NHS) alleging that doctors and staff at Barnet and Chase Farm hospital in north London ignored her plea for help even after she repeatedly told them she had stopped feeling the baby's movement and doctors themselves confirmed the baby's heart beats were not detected.

"I first felt the baby had become still on September 18, three days after my due date. The previous day I felt my water had broken and reported to the hospital with intense pain. The midwife examined the baby's heart and felt its head position before sending me back home," Niranjana said over phone from their house in Middlesex.

Doctors say considering Niranjana's fetus was in oblique position and she underwent a caesarean for her first child, the delay risked not just the baby's life, but the mother's as well. "When a patient with history of C-section with oblique transverse lie comes with pain, show and leak, an emergency C-section should be done to save the baby and the mother," said noted obstetrician-gynaecologist Dr Kamala Selvaraj.

When Niranjana reported she couldn't feel the baby's movement, doctors allegedly tried to allay her fears saying it was because of the fever she had overnight. "She was advised to take a paracetamol without any examination," said Niranjana's husband Karthikeyan Kumaresan, a software engineer.

Twelve hours later the couple called for the antenatal team which found traces of blood in her urine. "We were moved to a ward, but Niranjana wasn't examined until three hours later," said Karthikeyan, who along with Niranjana moved to the UK from Chennai six years ago.

The midwife who came to examine Niranjana couldn't detect the baby's heart beat with the hospital's mobile scan and the couple were asked to return the next morning. "We were so hassled and upset by then. They so casually asked us to return the next day even after realising the baby's heart beat was missing. They tried downplaying our fear stating that the scan had probably stopped working which is why it failed to pick up the heart beat," said Niranjana, who has a 6-year-old daughter.

On September 19, by which time Niranjana was overdue by four days, she was moved to the delivery room. "I was in a lot of pain by then. But even then, the staff kept saying I wasn't ready as yet. When I went to the washroom the next day to relieve myself, I saw the baby's head. I quickly alerted my husband, who in turn rushed in the staff," said Niranjana. The stillborn baby was delivered.

According to Karthikeyan, the baby's head was squashed and broken. "When I asked the staff, I was told that the head usually becomes like that when babies die in the womb," he said. Struggling to come to terms with her baby's death, Niranjana realised her ordeal was far from over. "After my delivery when my husband was in the room I wanted to go to the toilet and called for help. The midwife told me I had to help myself. I was bleeding. When I came back from the toilet I found the midwife had gone. I couldn't return to the bed, barely managing to stand on my own and I had blood around me," she said.

The couple to their shock also discovered later that the baby's post-mortem was done four days after it was delivered. "When I inquired I was told that the delay was because the body can only be moved by an undertaker and they couldn't arrange for one immediately," said Karthikeyan. On September 24, the couple approached the metropolitan police and lodged a complaint and simultaneously filed a complaint with the NHS.

While the hospital administration wasn't available for comment, NHS acknowledged they had received the complaint. "We are looking into the complaint," said Alex Greenwood who is the facilitator between the couple and the national body. "Senior members of the staff will be involved in investigating the complaint," said Alex, who is part of patient advice and liaison service, a NHS body created to provide advise and support to NHS patients.

In December last year, a woman of Indian origin has died after doctors in Ireland refused to perform an abortion, telling her that "this is a Catholic country", sparking widespread outrage.

For Niranjana, it will take sometime before she musters the courage to step into a hospital again. "The story of my pregnancy has been marred with horror episodes of lack of proper care. My trust on midwives is completely shaken and I have doubts on the level of skills possessed to handle situations that are not quite the usual and need intervention. I may never bring myself to step into the hospital again," Niranjana said in her complaint.

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News Network
July 4,2020

Maryland, Jul 4: The total number of coronavirus cases worldwide has touched 11 million, according to the latest data by the Johns Hopkins University on Saturday.
More than 523,613 people have died globally due to the infection, according to the data compiled by the university.

Though the virus is believed to have emerged from the Chinese city of Wuhan, the United States is the worst-hit country from COVID-19, which was declared as a pandemic by the WHO on March 11.

At least 129,275 people have died in the US from the coronavirus, according to Johns Hopkins University's latest tally.
There are at least 2,786,178 cases of the disease in the country. The US has the highest number of cases in the world.

The second worst-hit country is Brazil, which has reported 1,496,858 lakh cases. The country's death toll stands at 61,884.

The countries around the world including the US, India, Denmark, and Italy have started the process of lifting the lockdown by easing restrictions despite the number of cases continues to rise.

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News Network
June 25,2020

Jun 25: Tencent Holdings Ltd.'s $40 billion surge this week and the recent ascent of Pinduoduo Inc. have reshuffled the ranking of China's richest people.

The country's largest game developer has surpassed Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. as Asia's most-valuable company, with its shares rising above HK$500 in intraday trading Wednesday for the first time. Pinduoduo, a Groupon-like shopping app also known as PDD, has more than doubled this year.

The rallies have propelled the wealth of their founders, with an added twist: Tencent's Pony Ma, worth $50 billion, has surpassed Jack Ma's $48 billion fortune, becoming China's richest person. And Colin Huang of PDD, whose net worth stands at $43 billion, has squeezed real estate mogul Hui Ka Yan of China Evergrande Group out of the top three earlier this year, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

The coronavirus pandemic has accelerated the digitization of the workplace and changed consumers' habits, boosting shares of many internet companies. Now tech tycoons are dominating the ranks of China's richest people. They occupy four of the top five spots: Ding Lei of Tencent peer NetEase Inc. follows China Evergrande's Hui.

‘Perform Strongly'

Tencent has come a long way since hitting a low in 2018, when China froze the approval process for new games. Since then, the stock has almost doubled, and last month the tech giant reported a 26 per cent jump in first-quarter revenue.

“Tencent's online games segment will probably perform strongly through the Covid-19 pandemic, and most of its other businesses are relatively unscathed,” said Vey-Sern Ling, a Bloomberg Intelligence analyst.

That has been a boon for Pony Ma, 48, who owns a 7 per cent stake in the company and pocketed about $757 million from selling some 14.6 million of his Tencent shares this year, data complied by Bloomberg show.

The native of China's southern Guangdong province studied computer science at Shenzhen University and was a software developer at a supplier of telecom services and products before co-founding Tencent with four others in the late 1990s. At the time, the company focused on instant-messaging services.

It has been a long comeback for Pony Ma. He overtook real estate tycoon Wang Jianlin as China's second-richest person in 2013 and topped Baidu Inc.'s Robin Li as the wealthiest in early 2014. Later that year, Alibaba went public in the U.S., catapulting Jack Ma's fortune.

Bloomberg Intelligence's Ling notes, however, that Tencent's jump this year has lagged behind some internet peers, especially those in e-commerce, games and online entertainment. Just consider: Tencent shares have climbed 31 per cent in 2020, while PDD's American depositary receipts have more than doubled. Alibaba, meanwhile, has advanced just 6.9 per cent.

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Agencies
August 3,2020

New York, Aug 3: The number of coronavirus cases confirmed all over the world has surpassed 18 million, while the global COVID-19 death toll stands at over 687,000 according to data from the Johns Hopkins University's Coronavirus Resource Center.

As of 06:00 Moscow time on Monday (03:00 GMT), there are 18,017,556 confirmed coronavirus cases in the world. The global death toll from COVID-19 stands at 687,930. The number of recovered individuals stands at 10,649,108.

The United States remains the country with the largest number of cases (4,665,932) and the highest COVID-19 death toll (154,841), according to the latest data from the Johns Hopkins University.

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