COVID Positive Woman Allegedly Had Miscarriage After Doctors Kept Her Waiting For Hours

A woman, who tested positive for COVID, has alleged that she was left "unattended" and "bleeding" by doctors at a hospital for four hours, resulting in a miscarriage. The woman also added that the fetus had been discarded as medical waste.

The shocking allegations were made online by an unidentified Singapore woman against the prominent KK Women's and Children's Hospital, reported Asia One. Her statements triggered a public outrage, following which the hospital authorities launched an investigation.

However, according to KK Women's and Children's Hospital authorities, they had not been able to identify the patient yet. "Despite our best efforts, we are still unable to identify the patient based on the scene reported. There appear to be discrepancies between the story and the bill information shared online," Prof Tan Hak Koon, chairman of the gynecology division, told The Straits Times.

According to the woman, she was 20 weeks pregnant at the time. She had tested positive for COVID-19 and tried to get treatment at two private hospitals after experiencing severe abdominal pains.

However, both the facilities were not willing to admit her as she needed to be attended to by an infectious diseases gynecologist. It was then that she decided to approach KK Women's and Children's Hospital. Though she arrived around 2 pm, she was told to wait at the drop-off area. By 5 pm, she started to bleed but was still not attended to. When a doctor eventually saw her at 6 pm, she had lost her baby.

The woman also claimed that she was told to get in touch with a funeral home to handle the burial of the fetus. She claimed the hospital later told her husband that the fetus "has been out through medical waste".

Prof Tan disputed the woman’s claim, saying the hospital's procedure allows the patient to claim the fetus, and the hospital’s mortuary would bury or cremate it otherwise.

The allegations come soon after a similar incident wherein a man took to Facebook against the National University Hospital after his 36-week pregnant woman suffered a miscarriage while waiting at the emergency department. The NUH had later apologized to the man for the incident.