Syeda Sakina Fatima and Syeda Saima Fatima are the first set of twins to be born in Trauma and Emergency Care Centre (TECC) in the midst of a pandemic in Karnataka.
The twins are among the 49 babies born at the centre located on the Victoria Hospital premises, from May 8 till July 7.
Although the State-run Vani Vilas hospital, a speciality maternity facility, is located adjacent to the TECC, it is not a designated COVID-19 facility. Hence, COVID-19 positive pregnant women admitted at TECC have given birth at the centre itself.
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Although most of the mothers were from containment zones and had high viral load, none of the babies are positive. Mothers are all praise for the hospital’s team of infection control nurses led by TECC nodal officer Asima Banu, who is also the infection control officer at the facility, and the operation theatre team from TECC led by Imanuel P. and OBG and paediatric doctors from Vani Vilas Hospital.
On May 8, when the first two COVID-19-positive pregnant women from Padarayanapura, a containment zone then, delivered through C-Section at TECC, hospital authorities scrambled to realign nursing and Group ‘D’ staff and guide them on infection-control practices. Then the Septic OT was converted into a labour room and the C-Section was done in the Major Operation Theatre on the third floor.
S. Balaji Pai, Special Officer at TECC, said although OBG does not come in the scope of activities at the Trauma Centre, it was important that an OT for C-Section deliveries, apart from a labour room and a dialysis ward, be set up there. “I got these set up in our facility as there is every chance of pregnant women and renal patients turning positive,” Dr. Pai told
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Stating that one baby was born almost every day since May 8, the doctor said, “Now we have set up the normal labour room opposite the C-Section OT so that if any patient has a difficulty in normal delivery she can be immediately wheeled into the C-Section OT. We have been using disposable kits in the C-Section OT and have been taking utmost care to ensure that the babies do not get infected. So far, none have been infected.”
Of the 49 babies that include three sets of twins, 40 were born through C-Section. As many as 23 of the 49 are male babies, said Dr. Banu.
She said almost all of them have been separated from their mothers soon after the delivery and kept under isolation at Vani Vilas till a family member or relative of the patients take them home. “This is required as the mothers have to stay in the hospital till they test negative. Those who did not have anyone to take them home are being taken care of at Vani Vilas,” she said adding that there are more than 26 antenatal cases in TECC anticipating a good pregnancy outcome.