CHENNAI: Seven women have died following sterilisation procedures while it was a failure in 623 cases, out of 2.5 lakh operations performed in government hospitals across the state in the last one year period till March 31, according to the state family welfare department data.
The numbers question the quality of care in government hospitals as the number of deaths for this procedure should be zero while the failure rate should be only 1%. “Anaesthesia, sepsis and bowel injury were the causes of death in at least three cases. In some cases, the surgery was not performed properly. While the deaths following sterilisation should be nil, one failure per 100 sterilisation operations is allowed,” a source said.
Such deaths can be prevented by controlling infection in hospitals, having a trained and dedicated surgical team and careful selection of cases, said an official. “Strengthening of the taluk, primary health centres, district headquarters hospitals will help to reduce such deaths, as most of the missed cases for sterilisation operations in medical college hospitals can be performed here,” an official said.
“For every death, there are different levels of audit done from field to state level. Complications vary from case to case,” said a health department official, adding that doctors, staff nurses and paramedical staff are continuously given quality assurance training. The state compensates with Rs 2 lakh in the event of the immediate death of a mother following sterilisation. The compensation varies for deaths after a week, 15 days and so on. A compensation of Rs 50,000 in case the sterilisation operation failed.
Though deaths in male sterilisation procedures are nil, only 1,304 male sterilisations were performed last year. Doctors attribute it to the stigma of male sterilisation, adding that male sterilisation can help in bringing down the maternal mortality rate (MMR) in the state.