Chhattisgarh sterilisation deaths: 83 surgeries in 6 hours led to deaths

Raipur: Many women who underwent sterilisation surgeries at a Chhattisgarh government-sponsored family planning camp at Pendari, in Bilaspur district felt nauseous soon.

“Several beneficiaries of the health camp started feeling nauseous barely a few hours after surgery on Saturday night and were rushed to the district headquarters hospital at Bilaspur. While four women died on Sunday, four others succumbed on Monday. Two others died on Tuesday,” an official spokesman here said.

Chief minister Raman Singh, who visited the victims of the botched sterilisation surgery in hospital in Bilaspur on Tuesday morning, admitted that gross lapses by doctors in the camp led to the tragedy. “It is a clear case of lapses by the doctors. As many as 83 surgeries were performed in just six hours,” Mr Singh told reporters.

Four doctors have been suspended and an FIR has been filed against one of them in connection with the incident. A three-member high-level official committee has been constituted to probe the incident.

This is the third such tragedy in government-run health camps in the state in the last three years. Last year, 83 elderly persons, including women, lost their eyesight due to botched cataract removal surgeries at five health camps.