Ibrahimpatnam tragedy: FP operations done in untidy area

Hyderabad: The women who underwent family planning surgery at the state government-organised camp in Ibrahimpatnam last month alleged that they were made to sleep two each on a single cot after the procedure. The number or cots was not sufficient, and some women had to lie down on the floor.

Thirty-four women from Ibrahimpatnam mandal and neighbouring mandals of Ranga Reddy district underwent the surgery on August 25. Four of them died due to post-surgical complications, while 17 are undergoing treatment at NIMS Hospital and 13 are at Apollo Hospital, Jubilee Hills.

"Doctors said there is a severe infection in the area where the surgery was done. After observing for a couple of days, they said, they will perform another surgery," said a family member of one of the women patients.

The patients recalled that except for the instruction that they should come with an empty stomach, no other instructions were given to them and no preparation was also made.

No tests were conducted on the women before they went to the surgery and no checks were done afterwards. " Initially when registering our names, the health workers told us that blood, urine and other tests would be conducted one day before the surgery. When went to the PHC one day before the procedure, they noted down our name and other details, made to sit us till the noon and sent us, asking to report to the camp on August 25 morning," said a patient.

" We arrived there at around 9 am. A couple of hours later, they gave us a tablet. Some time later took us into the opeation heatre. tI was shifted at about 2 pm and discharged at about 4 pm. Till that time, we did not eat or drink anything," she added.

The staff arranged a carpet which looked like it was used for functions and also damaged, said the women. When the women lay down on the carpet, the health staff were walking around wearing their footwear, said the women.

"We were shocked to see them roaming around us in their footwear, even as we lay down on the carpet," said a patient.

Another woman added that one of the staff noticed the damaged carpet and alerted the senior staff, who asked the women to “adjust.”

Another woman, a mother of two children, said: "My family was against my going for the surgery. But, given the favourable conditions, I convinced them. It was a mistake.” She had gone to the camp  because it was being held nearby and there was no confirmation of another camp in the near future.

She said she had not seen the health staff who mobilised the women for surgery. “A day after the surgery, when I called them up complaining of pain they on the second day and gave some injections. They even said it is quite common to have pain. If they had understood my pain and treated it immediately, I would have been home with my children," she said.