Hospital held negligent over pregnant woman's suicide: investigators

Official investigators in northwest China's Shaanxi Province on Thursday evening said a hospital had been negligent in a case that led to the suicide of a pregnant woman.

The investigation panel, composed of officials with the health and public security departments in Yulin city in Shaanxi, decided the case was a suicide and not a homicide, as angry members of the public had accused the woman's family and hospital of being murderers. The investigation ruled that Yulin No.1 Hospital had been negligent in its care of the inpatient.

The official case description said the woman went to the hospital on Aug. 30 when she was very close to labor. The hospital had suggested she have a caesarean because a "large foetal head circumference meant vaginal delivery would be risky."

However, the woman's family insisted on a vaginal delivery and signed papers accordingly.

From 5:50 p.m. on Aug. 31, the woman walked out of the delivery ward twice to tell her family that her pain were unbearable, but she was escorted back to the ward both times..

At 8 p.m., nurses found that the woman had jumped out of the window of the operation room, and they called for emergency rescue. She was announced dead of severe brain injury, multiple fractures and hemorrhagic shock at 9:25 p.m. The child she was carrying was also dead.

Investigators said that the hospital's medical procedures were immaculate, but staff failed to give due care and where not prepared for an emergency.

The investigation on the direct cause of the woman's suicide is ongoing.

Authorities have vowed to deal with the case according to law.

Many people on social media questioned why the woman was not allowed to make her own decision on how to give birth.