A mother whose hand was amputated when she went into hospital to give birth is suing medical officials in Brazil.

The woman – not named in local media – was 39 weeks pregnant when she was admitted to the hospital in Rio de Janeiro on 9th October.

She gave birth naturally to a healthy baby boy the next day, but the 24-year-old began to bleed heavily after delivery.

As part of her treatment, medics at the Jacarepagua Intermedica Women’s Hospital inserted a line into a vein in her hand.

But the patient began to feel agonising pain and discomfort in her arm as her hand became purple and swollen and her condition started to worsen.

Medics then transferred her to a sister hospital in Sao Goncalo, where she was told her hand had to be amputated.

Her mother told local media that doctors had put the young woman’s chances of surviving without her hand being amputated at just five per cent.

After her left hand and wrist were surgically removed, the young woman spent a further 17 days in hospital away from her newborn.

She told local media: “I missed the opportunity to see my son in the early days.”

Her mother said: “To this day, it is a mystery. She went in there and left without a part of her body, without her hand.”

The family has now filed a lawsuit against the health facility.

Lawyer Monalisa Gagno said: “This was a sequence of errors that must all be investigated, in the criminal, administrative and civil spheres.

“We are going to ask for reparations for which it is civilly liable: cosmetic damage and moral and material damage.

“And we are going to take stock of any recklessness, negligence and malpractice, which is the criminal part.”

The young woman now struggles to raise her three children with just one hand.

She said: “I can’t bathe my baby. I couldn’t breastfeed my baby.

“There are certain things I cannot do with him, which I had already done with my two other children.”

A case has been filed with Civil Police as ‘culpable bodily injury’.