Patna: The National Commission for Women has taken cognizance of the alleged surgeries of 23 women without anaesthesia at Alauli Health Centre in Bihar's Khagaria. It is learnt that the Commission has written a letter to the Chief Secretary of Bihar demanding action against the responsible doctors and NGO concerned at the health centre.
The matter came to the fore on Wednesday when the women came forward to recall their harrowing experience of going under the knife without the mandatory anaesthesia thereby leaving the women in pain. It is alleged that around 30 women were scheduled to be surgically sterilised at the said hospital. When some of the women started screaming in pain while they were being operated on, about seven women fled the hospital out of fear while 23 women were, however, sterilised without being sedated. Pratima, one of the victims, said when she asked the doctor why he was performing the surgery without administering anaesthesia, he said it would be done later.
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"When we started shouting loudly, our hands and legs were grasped by the staff and the surgery was conducted,” Pratima said. Amid uproar over the negligence, the civil surgeon reached Alauli on Thursday to investigate the incident. He said that the matter is being investigated and necessary action will be taken against whoever is found guilty in this regard.
"We have started investigation into the incident and have sought an explanation from the NGO responsible for the inhuman act. The health department has given the contract for family planning operations to an NGO Global Development Initiative. We have sought an explanation from the NGO. Preliminary investigation reveals that the NGO was involved in an inhuman act," Amarnath Jha, Civil Surgeon, Khagaria said. A similar incident had taken place in the Araria district in 2012 when a family planning operation of 53 women was conducted without administering anaesthesia. At that time an FIR was registered against the guilty medical officers and three of them were sent to jail.
