Pune woman’s death: PMC submits maternal audit report to state

The Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) has submitted the Maternal Death Audit (MDA) Report of 37-year-old Tanisha alias Ishwari Sushant Bhise to the state government. The report was prepared Thursday evening as part of the efforts to understand the type of delay behind this maternal death and the reason for it, said officials.

The deceased, Tanisha, was seven months’ pregnant with twins and was allegedly denied emergency admission at Deenanath Mangeshkar Hospital (DMH) on account of her family’s inability to immediately pay a deposit of ₹10 lakh. She was later admitted to Surya Hospital in Wakad, where she delivered twin girls via C-section on March 29. However, her condition deteriorated due to postnatal complications. She was subsequently referred to Manipal Hospital in Baner, where she died on March 31.

The PMC conducted the MDA taking Suo Motu cognisance of Tanisha’s death. PMC’s Death Audit Committee and the state public health department’s Regional Death Audit Committee reviewed Tanisha’s case last Saturday. The final statement and testimonials of the family were recorded by the PMC on Wednesday. The report was submitted on the government portal on Thursday, officials said.

According to officials, the audit is not legally binding in terms of action but is meant for improving healthcare programmes and looks into various delays that may have led to the tragic death. The MDA uses the ‘three delays’ model — delay in seeking medical care, delay in reaching a hospital, and delay in receiving proper treatment.

A senior PMC official on condition of anonymity said that during the investigation, it was found that none of the delays mentioned in the model were applicable in the case of Tanisha’s death. “Tanisha’s death cannot be fit into any of the definitions of delays mentioned in the audit. We have given the report with a remark that there is a delay in hospital admission in the case,” said the official.

Dr Nina Borade, health chief of the PMC, said that the audit is important to highlight the shortcomings of the system. “We submit these findings to the state government so that the latter can frame better policies to prevent such deaths. Besides, this death cannot be attributed to any of the delays stated in the MDA,” she said.

Taking cognisance of the incident, chief minister Devendra Fadnavis had ordered an inquiry headed by the joint charity commissioner, Pune. The committee after investigation submitted its report to the chief minister’s office on Tuesday. Furthermore, the five-member committee, constituted by the public health department in the same case, submitted its preliminary findings to the Pune police commissioner on April 5. This committee in its report held the DMH guilty of violating norms that prohibit charitable trust hospitals from demanding advance payments in emergency cases.