A 31-year-old pregnant woman lost her baby and almost died while quarantining at a hotel in London. She is now seeking justice.
Amna Bibi was 34 weeks pregnant when she reached London's O2 Intercontinental hotel on June 10. During her trip from Pakistan to London, she was accompanied by her husband and other family members, reported Mirror.
According to government rules, those traveling to the UK from a red-list travel area need to quarantine at a hotel for 10 days.
The woman said that she experienced swelling, pain and breathlessness during her stay at the hotel, and had been making rounds to a hospital for check-ups but then paramedics stopped her from visiting the hospital for an ultrasound scan.
Bibi told YorkshireLive that the "trauma and tragedy" of miscarriage "will stay with me until I am living."
"I want under the government guidelines for every patient, not only pregnant women, to make it better for them. I don't want another lady in my place. If God gave me another life it would be fighting for other women not to be in my place," she added.
Bibi lost her baby girl, whom she named Hafsa, on June 18.
Her ultrasound scan was booked for the morning of June 15, but she claimed that the paramedic at the hotel banned her from going to hospital, saying that she was only allowed to visit hospital once under the rules and she had already been twice.
Since she had no professional help, she decided to ease her swelling by bathing, but she slipped twice and got injured. "I was in so much pain I could barely walk," she said.
Bibi said that the paramedic checked her, but was given painkillers instead of letting her go to hospital. Later, she started feeling painful contractions and sweating heavily. She even blacked out in her husband's arms and started bleeding. Bibi had to wait 45 minutes for the hotel staff to arrange a wheelchair so that she could be taken to hospital.
"I was in such a state, I was crying and I asked them if my husband could come with me - they said, 'No, sorry, your partner cannot go with you'. The hotel security went with me."
When she reached the hospital, the doctors searched for the baby's heartbeat, but couldn't find it. "They said to me that they were very sorry but I had lost the baby."
She had to undergo an emergency C-section. She was given a blood transfusion and was shifted to an intensive care unit on a ventilator, where she spent four days. "I was this close to dying. I was in such a big shock. For so many days I was trying to get into hospital and they wouldn't let me into hospital. I was not allowed to get my scan done. The doctor said that if I had had the scan done the baby would have been alive today," said Bibi.
A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said that it did not comment on individual cases. "We recognize the impact restrictions have had on many people. The quarantine measures we have in place are minimizing the risk of variants coming into the UK and in turn, safeguarding the hard-won progress of our vaccination programme."
According to the spokesperson, decisions for quarantine exemptions are carefully considered on a case-by-case basis. "We always balance the needs of the person applying with our top priority of ensuring the general public are as protected as possible. We are making every effort to ensure everyone’s needs are met and we expect hotels to provide onsite medical assessments by fully qualified healthcare professionals to ensure guests receive any treatment they need."
A spokesperson for IHG Hotels & Resorts said that their guests' safety is always their highest priority. "We are unable to comment on any matter relating to our guests due to confidentiality reasons, and the approach to and management of managed quarantine hotel facilities is a matter for the DHSC."
