A new mother was disgusted after finding a bloodstained cotton wool ball from her soup served up by the hospital kitchen.
Veena Nair had the shock discovery as she was recovering in the ward hours after giving birth to her daughter in Jehangir Hospital in the city of Pune, India.
A spokesman for the hospital claimed the cotton was left there by striking employees.
Mobile phone footage filmed by her husband, Mahesh Satpute,shows a floating cotton wool ball soaked in a vegetable soup.
He scoops the cotton wool ball out and squeezes all the soup out from medical swab until a small dark patch becomes visible.
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He then finds another cotton wool swab as he looks carefully into the soup.
Mahesh claimed the vegetable soup was 'prepared at the hospital kitchen' and believed that the cotton wool ball is 'with blood on it'.
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The IT professional told Pune Mirror: "As the hospital does not allow outside food and demand that a strict diet plan is followed, we had to eat the food available at the hospital canteen.
"After consuming a few spoons of the soup, my wife felt something wrong with the texture of one of the ingredients. The material was thick and spony.
"When she asked me to look into it, we found used cotton swabs with blood in the bowl."
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Mahesh said he and his wife were shocked and did not know how to react.
They immediately called the doctors to bring the issue to their attention and filed a formal complaint against the hospital.
Mahesh also met with the CEO of the hospital as well as the medical director but no response was received from the management.
Veena was in trauma and felt unsafe to breastfeed the baby as she feared if the soup she consumed had any infection it could possibly harm the baby.
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The couple has also filed a complaint to the Food and Drugs Administration and the health officer of the Pune Municipal Corporation is now seeking action against the negligence of the hospital administration, India Times reports.
A spokesperson for the Jehangir Hospital said: "This is sabotage by employees who are on strike.
"We have taken action against the persons responsible and are in the process of filing a police complaint against an unknown person.
"We also have responded to the complainants appopriately."
