A Oaxaca woman who gave birth standing up while waiting outside a hospital for medical attention Wednesday became the subject of a viral video after an outraged bystander recorded the incident on his phone.
State health officials later said that the incident occurred because the hospital was saturated with Covid-19 patients and staff had been trying to create a safe space for the birth.
However, the viral video told a different story, with witnesses to the birth railing at staff and decrying the woman’s treatment. The man who took the video said the baby fell onto the pavement on its head when the mother gave birth.
In the two-minute video, which starts after the birth, a female hospital staffer in scrubs who appears to be a nurse can be seen taking the 28-year-old mother inside with her baby. Behind her, a pool of blood and amniotic fluid remains on the pavement where she had been waiting.
According to the narrator, no one from the hospital arrived to help the woman even as she was in the final throes of labor.
Con la salud no se bromea @BeatrizGMuller
La mañana de este miércoles en la entrada del Hosp. de San Pablo Huixtepec, Oaxaca, una mujer tuvo que esperar por horas para ser atendida. El personal salió atenderla, cuando ya se encontraba en labor de parto.pic.twitter.com/EhijeMyhSE— José Díaz 🇲🇽México esta de luto (@JJDiazMachuca) February 3, 2021
“We were talking a little while ago,” he said on the video. “This woman was ready to give birth and nobody came … It’s a damn injustice.”
Another upset female bystander in the video can be heard berating a different hospital staffer who came out after the woman was taken away.
“Look at how you treat her. She can’t read and write, but she’s a person, and look at how you treat her,” she said.
Oaxaca Deputy Health Minister Juan Carlos Marquez Haine later said that the hospital in question, located in San Pueblo Huixtepec, was one of 17 hospitals in the Valles Centrales region of Oaxaca saturated with Covid-19 patients.
He said hospital staff had made the woman wait because they were preparing a room for her where she and the baby would not be exposed to the coronavirus. When she arrived, no space was immediately available due to the number of intubated patients in the hospital, he said.
It was not clear how long the woman waited outside before she gave birth, although some online were claiming that she had waited two hours.
Marquez said the mother and her newborn were currently in the hospital and in good health.
Source: Milenio (sp)
