Daijiworld Media Network - Mangaluru (SP)

Mangaluru, Jul 31: Swine flu (H1N1) has claimed another life in Dakshina Kannada district. A woman, who gave birth to a baby recently through surgical procedure, lost her battle with this disease. The child, born on July 21, is safe.

The victim happened to be Pushpavathi (27), wife of Purushotham from Yedapadavu near Moodbidri. She was working as data entry operator in Venoor gram panchayat in Beltangady taluk. She was married about 18 months back. She was in the eighth month of her pregnancy when baby shower was performed a few days back. Thereafter, she suffered from high fever. During blood test conducted at a private hospital at Badyaru, she was diagnosed with H1N1 infection. Thereafter, she was admitted into a private hospital in the city on July 17. As the doctor opined that it was not safe to continue treatment for swine flu with the baby in the womb, emergency Caesarian section was performed on June 21 and the baby was successfully brought out. Both the mother and child had been kept in intensive care unit of the hospital. Pushpavathi breathed her last on Sunday July 30 evening, without responding to treatment.

It is said that providing treatment to Pushpavathi who was pregnant, posed a challenge for the doctors in treating her. But surgical removal of the baby resulted in drastic changes in health condition of the mother, and H1N1 infection also worsened by then. In spite of best efforts of the doctors to save both the lives, health condition of Pushpavathi, who fought for life for 13 days, worsened on Sunday. She turned semi-conscious on Sunday evening and breathed her last sometime thereafter.

It is learnt that the baby, which weighted 1.7 kg when it was born, has been kept in incubator. The hospital staff say nothing can be said about the health of the baby now as it was born prematurely.

Dakshina Kannada district has been witnessing a spurt in H1N1 cases since the last one month, and several infected people are being treated in various hospitals. Pushavathi happens to be second victim to this disease after Praveen Kumar from Balpa in Sullia taluk.

It is gathered that Pushpavathi belonged to a very poor family, having been the last of five daughters of Ganesh Saphalya and Sundari couple. She also is survied by a brother. Because of utter poverty, the family found it hard to provide treatment to her. In view of financial problems affecting Pushpavathi, members of Karnataka State Gram Panchayat Employees Welfare Association led by its president, Deviprasad Bolma, had succeeded in collecting two lac rupees and handing over the amount to Pushpavathi. In another effort, Rs 45,000 had been collected and given to the family. However, all this could not save the life of Pushpavathi.