By IANS,
Agra : As activists continued protests against quacks and the administration kept up raids on illegally-running nursing homes with unqualified personnel, a 29-year-old woman died here Friday – a fortnight after a botched abortion led to complications and eventually removal of her intestines.
Manisha died in the ICU of S.N. Medical College Friday morning. Her husband Bhoori Singh sold his land and all the valuables for her treatment but to no avail, as doctors could do nothing to save her.
The woman was admitted to a local nursing home in the trans-Yamuna area for an abortion. After her case got complicated, family members took her to at least three other nursing homes and a private hospital before she ended up at the medical college, but without any hope of survival.
As her condition deteriorated, Manisha was transferred to Shringar Nursing Home, where Dr K.P.Singh and nurse Reena carried out an operation for abortion and in the process, damaged her intestines and womb. To save her life, her intestines were taken out.
When her blood loss could not be stopped, she was transferred to Vidhyawati Nursing Home and from there to Krishna Nursing Home and from there to Pushpanjali Hospital, before finally landing at the medical college.
But even the doctors there had no idea how to treat a patient who had no intestines. “How would she ever survive without intestines? Drip is a temporary solution,” the doctors told senior police and administrative officials.
A police investigation in the sequence of events is on and the whole city has been fuming with anger against doctors. The doctor and nurse, who allegedly carried out the botched abortion, are on the run and untraced.
Women’s groups in the city have been holding demonstrations for the past one week. The state health department has carried out extensive checks and some nursing homes have been sealed, while a large number of quacks have locked their shops and disappeared.
The Agra chapter of the Indian Medical Association has asked for stringent measures against quacks.
“Due to the greed of a few, the whole profession gets a bad name,” lamented a retired professor of the medical college.