TAIPEI (Taiwan News) -- Just as Chinese media released surveillance video yesterday showing the fatal fall of a pregnant woman in Yulin, China who chose to take her life because relatives refused permission for a C-section, her husband said that a nurse tried to grab her hand just as she was leaping out a window, but was unable to hold on. Strangely, it took 21 minutes for staff to notice her body in the parking lot.
At 6 p.m., last Wednesday, a 28-year-old woman named Ma Rongrong, who was 41 weeks pregnant, entered the maternity ward at a hospital in Yulin, Shaanxi province after going into labor. Doctors told the woman that due to the large size of her baby's head, they recommended a C-section, however her family refused to give permission to allow the procedure.
Despite pleading with her relatives at least three times to allow her to have a cesarean operation to alleviate her excruciating labor pains, they continued to deny her request and by 8 p.m., doctors said she was too far into labor to safely start a C-section operation. As now can be seen in the CCTV video of the hospital's parking lot, at 8:13 p.m. she leaped from the window of the fifth floor of the hospital and landed on the windshield of parked three-wheeled truck, killing herself and her unborn child.
According to Ma's husband, a nurse spotted his wife preparing to jump from the window and tried to grab her hand, but she was not able to get a firm grasp before it was too late. Indeed, Chinese media outlet Sina has reported an inside source who claimed to have watched surveillance footage of the woman's jump from inside the maternity ward, and a nurse can be seen grabbing part of the woman as she started to jump, but was not able to get a firm grip on her clothes.
Inexplicably, it was not until 21 minutes later at 8:34 that hospital staff stumbled on her body lying on the ground in front of the truck in the parking lot. It was another two minutes before an ambulance arrived on the scene to carry her to the emergency room 300 meters away.
CCTV footage showing Ma falling onto truck. (Screen capture of Tencent video)
According to an initial investigation into the incident, authorities last evening announced that at the time Ma was admitted into the hospital, her vital signs were normal, but an ultrasound indicated that the fetus's head was too large for a vaginal birth, therefore doctors had recommended a C-section procedure. However, documents indicate that the family opted for the mother to undergo a natural birth.
In China, cesarean sections require the permission of family members before a woman can undergo the operation.
Ma in extreme pain in hospital lobby. (Weibo image)
The report pointed out that experts found that the hospital provided a clear diagnosis and followed proper procedures when informing her of the options, and that their rescue efforts were in line with regulatory requirements. Therefore, they concluded that the treatment the hospital provided was not a causal factor in Ma's death.
Police are ruling out foul play as they found that Ma's death was self-inflicted due to her leap from the hospital window which resulted in numerous fractures throughout her body, severe cranial damage, hemorrhagic shock, and a stillbirth.
Window from which Ma jumped to her death. (Weibo image)
There have been greatly conflicting reports about the reasons why the family refused to allow her to have the procedure, with some saying that they did not want to pay the extra fees for the operation or that it would complicate future pregnancies. However, the family denies that they refused the procedure to save money.
The husband has since claimed that he later did give permission to have the surgery, however the hospital states that none of her family members signed any consent forms for a C-section.