A 20-year-old COVID-19 patient survived a rare life-threatening complication while delivering her baby at state-run Sassoon General Hospital Pune, doctors said on July 29.

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After giving birth to a baby boy, the woman suffered from "uterus inversion" a rare life-threatening complication during childbirth in which the uterus turns inside out, a senior doctor from the hospital said. "The patient, who was 38-week pregnant, was admitted to the hospital on July 23. On admission, her vitals were good and her COVID-19 antigen test came out negative so her swabs were sent for RT-PCR test," he said.

On the same day, the woman delivered a baby boy and soon after the delivery, her uterus suffered an inversion, the doctor said. "Due to vigilant and quick diagnosis and manual reposition of the uterus, major complications of uterine inversion such as neurogenic and haemorrhagic shock and severe blood loss could be prevented," he said. While the patient's RT-PCR report came out positive, the infant has tested negative for the infection, he said.

An uterian inversion is a rare and life-threatening complication that occurs in 1 in every 2,000 to 1 in 50,000 deliveries with a maternal mortality of around 15 per cent, the doctor said. "Most of the cases occur because of excessive fundal massage, short umbilical cord, uterine anomalies, fundal placentation," he said, adding that in this case, there was a fundal attachment of placenta.