Kin of 30-year-old Ramkashi Yadav, a resident of Sitapur, Mirchaiya Municipality Ward 11, who succumbed to postpartum complications on Saturday morning, have protested against the Bardhaman Hospital of Golbazar accusing the doctors of negligence.

Her family members have staged a protest placing her body on the highway in front of the hospital accusing the hospital of delaying her referral to a better-equipped facility.

After experiencing labour pain on Friday morning, Yadav was brought to the Bardhaman Hospital by her family members. Yadav gave birth to the baby after a successful surgery at 12:00 pm on Friday.

However, Yadav’s health deteriorated severely due to overbleeding and other complications. The family repeatedly requested the hospital to refer her to another facility. Despite multiple requests, the hospital staff at Bardhaman reportedly tried to convince her family members saying “she will be fine here”. It was only around 2 am on Saturday that the hospital agreed to refer her to another hospital.

“We received a referral only at 2 am on Saturday. It took us 3 hours to reach Biratnagar,” Yadav’s husband Santa Yadav told the Post. When they reached the Neuro Hospital in Biratnagar, the doctors declared her dead at 5:30 am, stating that she was brought dead.

Santa claimed that his wife’s death was solely due to the negligence of Bardhaman Hospital as they delayed her referral. Santa added that during surgery his wife lost large volumes of blood “due to the carelessness of the doctors”.

“Bardhaman Hospital asked us to bring blood for my wife. We brought it,” Santa said. “But we were not satisfied with the way they were treating my wife and her deteriorating condition. The hospital put us in limbo despite repeated requests for referral.”

The newly born child is in good condition, Santa said.

Following the protest, police have arrested the hospital’s operator Dr Tejshankar Yadav, who was also involved in Yadav’s surgery.

“We are questioning Yadav and further investigating the case to know the case in detail,” said Inspector Gobinda Kumar Sah, chief of the Goldbazar police post.

Dr. Yadav did not respond to requests for comments.