The fact that the government announced 2BHK houses as compensation to the families of the deceased was deemed a red flag by many.
Published Aug 31, 2022 | 3:34 PM ⚊ Updated Aug 31, 2022 | 4:58 PM
Telangana Health Minister T Harish Rao on Wednesday, 31 August, visited the NIMS Hospital to interact with some of the patients from the Ibrahimpatnam sterilisation camp where several women developed infections and four died. (Supplied)
One-year-old Karthik, whose mother is one of the 30 women who are hospitalised after they underwent surgery at the Ibrahimpatnam sterilisation camp. (Sumit Jha/South First)
On a day the world welcomed Lord Ganesha, his brother’s one-year-old human namesake, little Karthik from Ibrahimpatnam in the Rangareddy of Telangana waited with his family at the Nizam’s Institute Of Medical Sciences (NIMS) in Hyderabad, where his mother is admitted.
She is one of the 17 women undergoing treatment at NIMS after undergoing sterilisation surgery at a government camp in Ibrahimpatnam on 25 August. And she may — at least so far — be one of the lucky ones.
After all, four of the 34 women who underwent the procedure there have already died of complications, compelling state Health Minister T Harish Rao — who on Wednesday, 31 August, visited NIMS Hospital — to suspend the licence of the doctor who performed the sterilisation surgery.
The remaining 13 women are undergoing treatment at the Apollo Hospital in the city.
The superintendent of the Ibrahimpatnam Civil Hospital, where the camp was conducted, has already been suspended.
Interestingly, the Telangana government had announced a compensation of 2BHK houses — besides ₹5 lakh ex gratia and education for children in residential schools in the state — for each of the four deceased, raising several questions about the camp.
The minister announced that the state government was providing free treatment to all these 30 patients, and giving them another ₹10,000 for any medical assistance they would further need.
“We have been making the necessary efforts to save the lives of these patients ever since we came to know of their conditions,” said Rao, admitting that it was his ministry that sent ambulances to the homes of these 30 women to bring them to hospitals in Hyderabad.
The state’s Director of Public Health (DPH), Dr G Srinivasa Rao, “is monitoring the situation at both hospitals”, said Rao.
He added that the state’s Medical Education Department’s Director Dr Ramesh Reddy had been assigned the task of ensuring that the post-mortem reports of the four deceased were submitted at the earliest.
Of the four women who succumbed to the complications after the surgery, the first was 32-year-old Mamatha. This resident of the Madugula mandal of the Rangareddy district died on Sunday evening.
Sushma (28) from the Lingampally area of the district died on Monday morning. Lavanya (22) from the Seetharampet village of the same district died on Monday evening. The last, 28-year-old M Mounika of the Rajiv Nagar Thanda, died on Tuesday morning.
They were admitted to different private hospitals after showing symptoms like vomiting and low blood pressure. The surgery site on all four women had developed an infection, said the DPH.
“We got the initial information that these women had died of the infection,” said the minister.
As a result, not only was the surgeon’s licence cancelled and the hospital superintendent suspended, but the government has also constituted a five-member expert committee — headed by the DPH — to identify the root cause of the incident, said Harish Rao.
The minister, meanwhile, seemed to come to the defence of the surgeon — who he called an “expert” — apparently putting more blame on the suspended superintendent.
He said it was the superintendent’s duty to maintain the equipment and resources of the hospital, and that if even a scalpel used in the surgery turned out to be the cause of the infection, it was his fault.
“We are looking forward to the report of the expert committee, which will submit it in seven days,” he said. “That will help us determine the next course of action.”
The minister said the government had performed 12 lakh surgeries through the same procedure — double-puncture laparoscopy — for sterilisation in the state over the last seven years, but this was the first time deaths were reported.
Relatives of some of the patients admitted to NIMS Hospital told South First that the sterilisation camp had been advertised by Accredited Social Health Activists, or ASHAs, and auxiliary nurses.
They said the women who underwent the procedure were told merely an hour after their surgery that they could go back home.
Over time, several of them developed an infection at the site of the incision on their body. Some of them even started experiencing pus buildup and discharge there.
The relatives told South First that while not everyone had developed an infection, they were still in hospital as a precautionary measure. Also, all of them were on saline, they said.
Telangana BJP president Bandi Sanjay Kumar on Wednesday demanded the resignation of the health minister over the issue.
He also wanted the compensation amount to be increased to ₹10 lakh, besides houses for all the women who underwent sterilisation at the Ibrahimpatnam camp.
The minister, who belongs to the TRS, which is currently in power in the state, replied that the Opposition parties were rushing to just make accusations against the government.
“We are working day and night to ensure that everyone is safe. The entire Health Department is involved in making things right in this case,” said Harish Rao.
