In a bizarre incident that took place in Madhya Pradesh, an infant girl who was delivered in a lavatory bowl of a toilet was rescued alive from the sewage tank after two hours.
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The incident which has been termed as a miracle took place in the Sheopur district on Tuesday, where a woman 'unconsciously' delivered the baby into the lavatory bowl.
The 28-year-old woman who was identified as Papita Gurjar, is a resident of Sheopur's Bangrod village.
The woman, after coming out of the washroom told her husband that she was experiencing abdominal pain. Papita's husband Ghanshyam Gurjar then immediately took her to the hospital, assuming that his wife was in labour, her family members told the doctors.
Papita was nine months pregnant and used to go to Vijaypur community health centre (CHC) for regular check-ups. However, when the doctors took her to the Operation Theatre they found her uterus empty.
On enquiring, Papita's family members informed the doctors that she was complaining of an ache after coming out of the toilet. Her husband and the doctors subsequently realised that she must have delivered the baby in the toilet bowl.
"We too had a suspicion that she must have delivered the baby in toilet. I immediately dispatched ambulance to their house," said Dr Ashok Khare, medical officer of Vijaypur CHC was quoted as saying by the Times of India.
The doctors immediately sent an ambulance to Papita's house.
The ambulance driver heard the infant's cries when he entered the toilet. He rescued the baby from the sewage tank. The doctors said that though the baby was alive, she was gasping for breath as she was in the sewage tank for two hours.
"The infant was brought to hospital and admitted to neonatal ICU. She is stable now," Dr Khare, added.
Female infanticide?
However, as this region is infamous for female foeticide and infanticide, police are now investigating whether the girl child was purposely flushed down the toilet or was it an accident.
The police are trying to find out who clipped the umbilical cord in order to determine whether it was a case of infanticide.
