KARACHI (Dunya News) - A senior doctor at a private hospital in Karachi has said medical examinations showed that a woman involved in a case concerning a reportedly missing newborn was not pregnant at the time of her admission.
Dr Anjum Ara Hassan, head of the hospital's gynaecology department, made the comments in a video statement concerning the case, which emerged after the alleged disappearance of a newborn during childbirth at the hospital in Karachi's Nazimabad area.
Hassan said the woman first visited the hospital in February and reported that she was three months pregnant. An ultrasound performed at the hospital at the time, however, showed no pregnancy, she said.
The woman was subsequently registered at the hospital and made several visits to the emergency department for examinations, according to Hassan.
She said the patient had also presented an ultrasound report from another hospital that indicated she was pregnant. She later arrived at the emergency department with those reports and was examined by the doctor on duty.
Hassan said doctors conducted checks including monitoring the patient's heartbeat and other required tests before deciding to perform an operation.
"After the operation, it was found that the woman was not pregnant," she said.
The gynaecology chief also alleged that some examination entries in the patient's hospital file were fabricated. She said the woman had never undergone a direct examination by her.
Hassan added that medical and legal reports had since been received and that laboratory and medical examinations also indicated that the woman was not pregnant.
The circumstances surrounding the reported disappearance of the newborn and the conflicting pregnancy records were not immediately clear from the statement.