‘It was very painful’ - Woman with maggots in her vagina speaks out
The report of a lady who had maggots removed from her vagina by doctors went viral yesterday.
The story which spread was that the lady had unprotected sex and caught an STD called the ‘sex superbug’ which had caused the growth of live maggots in her vagina which had to be removed.
Another story has emerged which says lady in the video was infected with maggots after childbirth at a government hospital in India .
The infection was as a result of gross medical negligence of the doctors and nurses who performed the delivery after the gauze used to stop bleeding after delivery was left inside the woman by doctors.
The victim, 22-year-old, Reshma Kumar (name changed), 10 days after
giving birth to a baby at a government hospital, found flesh eating
maggots crawling down her legs.Alarmed at her shocking physical state,
Reshma’s husband, Shamlal (name changed), immediately took her to a
hospital in Hadapsar.
After examining her, the doctor revealed that a large wad of gauze,
used to stop bleeding, had been left inside her vagina after giving
birth.And the gauze caused a serious infection, resulting in maggot
infestation.
According to Times of India:
The gauze should be removed immediately after the bleeding
stops.It is a fact that gauze invariably gets infected if it is kept for
a long time,since it is a foreign body, said Dr Manda Ghorpade,head of
the gynecology department in Sane Guruji Arogya Kendra in Hadapsar,where
Reshma was treated.
Residents of Mundhwa,Reshma and Shamlal ,who works as a
cleaner at a housekeeping company,hail from Bhadrak district in Orissa
and moved to Pune two years ago.
“It was very painful.Initially,we thought it was normal to feel
sore,but when I saw maggots,we were alarmed and went to the doctor
straight away.The reason we did not file a complaint of medical
negligence is because we are from a different state and I don’t even
know any language other than Oriya.My husband does not have enough time
and resources to fight the case, said Reshma”.
Any delay would have made the wound even worse and there were
high chances of her contracting septicemia.We immediately removed the
gauze swab and put turpentine for clear the wound of maggots,and later
applied ointments.We put her on antibiotics,so that the infection gets
healed quickly.It was so painful,that she was not even allowing us to
touch her, added Dr Ghorpade.
Dr Shubhada Deoskar, a city based gynecologist,was shocked at
the medical negligence on display.It is sad that such a thing has
happened.Such a mistake is totally unacceptable.Gauze pack is one of the
methods used to stop bleeding after delivery.Whenever such a pack is
used,we always make a note that it has to be removed after certain
period of time.When we go on the rounds,the first question we ask
the resident doctors is whether the pack is removed, she said.