Same gloves, same needle… The sterilization operation, which claimed the lives of 13 Indian women, took place in appalling hygienic conditions, according to an independent report.
Terrible elements. After the sterilization operation that claimed the lives of thirteen women in India, an independent team of health professionals drew up an inspection report, separate from the ongoing legal proceedings. He points to deplorable hygienic conditions.
1 minute 30 per operation
Thus, during the operation, the surgeon would have operated on the 83 women without the slightest hygiene precaution. “No member of the team changed their gloves between interventions. A single injection needle and syringe and a single suture needle were used for all operations. None have been sterilized and no new needles have been used ”, we can read.
The 83 women were operated in 90 minutes in a camp in Bilaspur, in the state of Chhattisgarh (center). “Or about one minute to one and a half minutes per operation,” the report emphasizes. After the procedure, the sterilized women were forced to lie on mattresses on the floor. Some have started to vomit; others suffered from low blood pressure. They were all sent home without any postoperative care. Thirteen died. About sixty were hospitalized.
Women hospitalized after sterilization operation – screenshot NDTV
Deaths from infection
At first, the authorities questioned the drugs used after the operation, arguing that they contained a toxic agent found in rat poison. However, according to the findings of the report, these women would have died of an “infection which led to sepsis”. The doctor who autopsied the bodies reportedly confirmed this to the authors of the report. As for the one who carried out the operations, he was arrested. He denies any negligence and believes that he serves as a scapegoat. The authorities are said to have forced him to “make figures”.
Mass sterilization is a widely used method in India to stem the growth of the population, in this country of 1.2 billion people. They take place within the framework of public programs organized by the States, and target in priority the inhabitants of rural areas, often very poorly informed, according to the NGOs. “No woman was told about the procedure, what they would experience and the possible side effects,” Poonam Muttreja, director of the Population Foundation of India, the organization that contributed to the report told AFP.
Doctor RK Gupta (center) is questioned by the police after the intervention – AP / SIPA
Operation with a bicycle pump
The disastrous hygienic conditions are regularly pointed out by NGOs. Moreover, in recent days, a new scandal has stirred the country. On social networks, the Indian media broadcast photos taken during one of these operations, in Banarpal, in the state of Odisha. We see a doctor, without a gown, mask or glove … and with a bicycle pump in his hands. It would be used to inflate the abdomen of patients during laparoscopic tubal ligation. That day, 56 women were operated on.
“It is a common practice in rural areas which lack surgical equipment”, explained the doctor. to the Hindustan Times newspaper. He has thus performed 60,000 operations over the past ten years, many of them with a bicycle pump, “without encountering the slightest problem”. The doctor was even recognized for his work.
Odisha doc uses bicycle pump for sterilization http://t.co/GAujrcUWtm #ht (Pic: A medical assistant holds the pump) pic.twitter.com/guBMWNHOBQ
– Hindustan Times (@htTweets) December 1, 2014
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