HYDERABAD: The Telangana government has halted all sterilisation camps across the State following the deaths of four women who underwent Double Puncture Laparoscopy (DPL) surgery at a PHC in Ibrahimpatnam on August 25.
Health Minister T Harish Rao visited 17 women who were operated upon at the camp and are currently in NIMS Hospital on Wednesday, saying preliminary information suggests “infection” as the cause of death.
The fact that the surgeries were conducted in a rushed manner and medical staff at the PHC ignored the complaints of patients is clear from the account of A Lingaswamy, whose 27-year-old wife, A Lavanya, died on August 30 following complications after the surgery.
“I can’t breathe. Take me away from here. Please save my life,” were Lavanya’s last words, a resident of Sitharampet village and a mother of two toddlers and an infant, who succumbed after spending five days in three hospitals.
Narrating the horror, Lavanya’s husband A Lingaswamy, says they went to the PHC at 1 pm on August 25 where she was given an injection (anaesthesia).“The doctor came late and completed all surgeries within an hour. Soon after the surgery, Lavanya began vomiting but the staff there told me to take her home and give her curd rice. They assured us that she would be fine. By 4.30 pm, my wife was discharged, “ Lingaswamy tells TNIE.
The next morning when Lavanya’s condition worsened, she was taken to the community health centre in Vanasthalipuram, from where she was referred to the Osmania General Hospital. As there was no visible recovery, Lingaswamy admitted Lavanya to Owaisi Hospital, where she was treated till August 30 and breathed her last. Lingaswamy spent Rs 1.7 lakh for treatment there.
“Her head was swollen. The doctors said that she had multiple organ failure,” recalls Lingaswamy, who works as a daily-wage farm labourer. Their family’s plight didn’t end there. For some reason, they were prevented from bringing her body inside the village. They had to perform her last rites on the outskirts, according to K Geeta Murthy, BJP Mahila Morcha president, who told Express that the party’s local leaders have decided to build a couple of rooms for the family to live and to admit the three children in hostels run by the Sangh Parivar.
Thirteen other women are undergoing treatment at Apollo Hospitals in Jubilee Hills. The government’s move to set up an inquiry committee and Harish’s assurance that all steps will be taken to prevent such incidents in future come as cold consolation for the families of victims.
The Telangana government has announced an ex gratia of Rs 5 lakh to the families of four women (including Lavanya), who died after the laparoscopic surgeries in the PHC on that day, in addition to assuring them 2BHK houses.
However, the Opposition is up in arms against setting the compensation so low, as all these women were in their twenties, having 2-3 children, some of them infants.“By sending 13 surviving women to Apollo Hospitals and 17 to NIMS, the State government has admitted that the facilities in government health centres are substandard. They are also managing the post-mortem reports so that that truth remains shielded. We demand that the families of victims be given Rs 1 crore as ex gratia, a 2BHK house.
Besides, the State government should take care of all educational expenses of the children affected,” says former Congress MLA Malreddy Ranga Reddy, who also demands the resignation of Health Minister T Harish Rao. The BJP has also raised a similar demand, as all the dead women belonged to poor economic households. While the Opposition Congress and BJP are demanding Harish’s resignation, the Health Minister says that the government has conducted 12 lakh sterilisation surgeries in seven years and no such incident has ever been reported.
Please save my life
“I can’t breathe. Take me away from here. Please save my life,” were the last words of Lavanya, a mother of two toddlers and an infant, who succumbed after spending five days in three hospitals