SURGICAL STRIKE ON TRUST

No medical reason, no consent-a dubious hysterectomy exposes an ailing system

- By Amitabh Srivastava

VICTIM OF THE SYSTEM Anita Devi at her home in Parmanandpur village, Saran, Bihar

“I AM STILL NOT BACK TO NORMAL LIFE... the pain hasn’t gone,” says Anita Devi, 37, her voice strained. Over five months after undergoing surgery on October 10 last year at a private hospital in Patna, she says she continues to suffer pain and debilitating weakness.

In her village, Parmanandpur in Saran district, the day is well under way. But Anita remains on a wooden cot, unable to muster the strength that would ordinarily carry a woman of her age through the ordinary demands of daily life. What she believed was a routine medical procedure has left her in a prolonged limbo of suffering.

Anita was admitted to Evers Hospital in Patna in October for what she believed was a relatively minor ailment, which a previous stay at another private facility, Kusum Hospital, had failed to resolve. What followed, she alleges, was a hysterectomy carried out without her informed consent.

MULTIPLE VICTIMS?