Doctors Leave Newborn Baby's Head Inside Mother's Womb During Botched Surgery

A newborn baby was accidentally decapitated and the head was left inside the mother’s womb during a botched surgery in rural Pakistan.

The shocking medical incident occurred on Sunday, June 19, at a private hospital in the Tharparkar district of Sindh, said the district health officer.

The woman was reportedly brought in to deliver her stillborn, which was in a breech, or bottom-down, position, reports said.

During the surgery, which was conducted without a gynecologist, doctors separated the baby’s torso from the head, which remained stuck in the mother’s uterus.

“The head got stuck after delivering the torso because the delivery was done by inexperienced hands,” a health official of Sindh province said in a statement, the VICE World News.

After the failed delivery, the woman, whose life was considered in danger, was taken to the Civil Hospital in Mithi where there were no facilities to treat her.

Later, she was shifted to the Civil Hospital in Hyderabad where the baby’s head was removed through abdominal surgery because the woman’s uterus was ruptured, reports said.

“The mother is now out of danger and is in recovery,” Tharparkar district health officer Dr. Greesh told the outlet.

Director-General of Health Sindh Dr. Juman has ordered an inquiry into the chain of medical failures that endangered the woman’s life. He said that strict action will be taken against those involved in the negligence.

“Specialised doctors are unavailable in the region. Women and their children keep dying,” Karachi-based health journalist Muhammad Waqar Bhatti told the outlet.

“Specialised doctors and gynecologists don’t want to step foot in the region because of how underdeveloped it is,” Bhatti said. “The government needs to make conscious efforts to increase healthcare staff and facilities in the region so that such tragedies can be avoided in the future.”

A similar incident was reported in India in 2019, when doctors at the Achampet Hospital in Nagarkurnool, Telangana, left the body of a fetus inside the mother’s womb after its head was severed from the body during delivery.

The incident came to light after the patient was referred to another hospital in the city where doctors found only the body of the child inside the mother’s womb.

It was a normal delivery. While pulling out of the baby, the head severed while the torso retracted into the womb, reports said.