A city-based photojournalist whose pregnant wife needed urgent medical help rushed from one government healthcare facility to another before the woman delivered a dead baby on Sunday.

Vinay Murmu, who works with an English newspaper and lives near D.A.V. Kapildev, Kadru, shared his anguish with The Telegraph on Monday and said he had never expected such a situation.

“My wife, Anita Rashmi (32), was under regular treatment of doctors at the Sadar Hospital through her pregnancy. Last time she saw a doctor was in mid-March. After novel coronavirus infections were reported from the maternity ward of the hospital, we switched to Dr Rekha Rani who runs a private maternity centre in Harmu Housing Colony which is close to my house. Everything was fine till 1pm on Sunday when my wife experienced abdominal pain,” Murmu said.

“As her expected delivery date was May 10, I took my wife to Dr Rani who said she was not getting the pulse of the baby in the womb. She suggested taking my wife to RIMS. I called up a few of my friends, who suggested taking her to Sadar Hospital which is nearer to Harmu than RIMS. When I reached the Sadar Hospital around 7pm, I did not find anyone except a guard. After an hour-long wait, a nurse came and suggested taking my wife to the primary health centre in Doranda, saying that delivery service was being provided there.

“Around 9pm, I reached Doranda. I was asked for Covid-19 test report, which I did not have. When I said I am a journalist the nurse called a doctor, who reached after 40 minutes. The doctor after a check-up again asked me to take my wife to RIMS. Finally around 10.30pm, my friends lined up a private hospital, Gurunanak Hospital and Research Centre on Station Road, where my wife delivered a dead baby around midnight under proper medical care. She is safe,” Murmu said.

He said he was hesitant to take Anita to RIMS because the maternity ward there had been shut earlier due to Covid-19 patients delivering babies there.

He said he had twice before tried to get a Covid-19 test for his wife, once at Gurunanak School and another time at primary health centre at Doranda, “but due to mismanagement, I failed. I had never expected the level of mismanagement to be so high”.

In Ranchi, most pregnant women are being prescribed a Covid-19 test.

Contacted for comment on the tragedy, Ranchi civil surgeon Dr Vijay Bihari Prasad said: “The baby had already died before the patient reached the hospital. The doctor at the primary health centre in Doranda had already mentioned it in the report.”

Ranchi deputy commissioner Rai Mahimapat Ray said: “Show-cause notices are being sent to all the hospitals that turned away the patient to ascertain the circumstances under which this happened.”