Ma Rongrong’s labour pains were unbearable. For hours she had begged for a C-section to ease her agony. After multiple requests were refused, she jumped five floors from a hospital window in northern China to her death.
BEIJING: Investigators in China’s Shaanxi Province have determined that a hospital had been negligent in a case that led to a pregnant woman jumping to death.
Ma Rongrong, 26, had gone to a hospital in Yulin on Aug 31 with unbearable labour pains. For hours, she had begged for a C-section to ease her agony. After multiple requests were refused, she jumped five floors from a hospital window to her death.
Ma’s family and her doctors have traded blame for denying her the surgery that could have eased her suffering.
The hospital said it recommended that Ma undergo a caesarean because a the baby’s head was big, meaning vaginal delivery would be risky. It claimed, however, that her husband and family insisted on natural birth in the belief it was better for the child.
As evidence, the hospital posted Ma’s surgery log on its official social media account, showing that the family had denied her requests.
Ma had signed an authorisation granting her husband the right to make medical decisions on her behalf, it said, adding the hospital therefore «had no right to change the delivery method without (his) consent».
But Ma’s husband, Yan Zhuangzhuang, told the Beijing Youth Daily that he had agreed to his wife’s surgery, and it was the doctor who said it was unnecessary.
