In a heart-warming incident, doctors assisted a pregnant woman in Jammu and Kashmir's Keran to deliver a healthy baby over WhatsApp call as the region was blanketed in a layer of heavy snow. The woman, who has a history of labour complications, could not be airlifted due to bad weather.
"On Friday night, we received a patient in labour at the Keran PHC (primary health centre) with a history of complicated delivery with eclampsia, prolonged labour and episiotomy," Block Medical Officer of Kralpora Dr Mir Mohammad Shafi said.
An air evacuation was required to take the patient to a hospital with maternity facilities as Keran remained cut off from the rest of Kupwara district during the winter. Continuous snowfall on Thursday and Friday prevented the authorities to arrange an air evacuation, forcing the medical staff at the Keran PHC to look for an alternative way to assist in the delivery.
A gynaecologist in the Kralpora subdistrict hospital, Dr Parvaiz, guided Dr Arshad Sofi and his paramedical staff at the Keran PHC over a WhatsApp call on the procedure to deliver the baby.
"The patient was induced (into labour) and after six hours a healthy baby girl was born. Currently, both the baby and the mother are under observation and doing fine,” Dr Shafi said.
Fresh snowfall affects traffic in J&K
Fresh snowfall in Kashmir on Saturday affected air and surface traffic as the Srinagar-Jammu national highway was closed for vehicles due to shooting stones and flights were delayed because of poor visibility, officials said.
The highway too remained closed on Friday and Thursday due to shooting stones at Panthyal and many other places in Ramban district. Flights scheduled to arrive at Srinagar international airport were delayed due to poor visibility caused by the fresh spell of snowfall. "Flights will resume only after improvement in the visibility," an official of the Airport Authority of India said.
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