Kamala Shahi, 38, breathed her last at Kathmandu Medical College (KMC), Sinamangal Wednesday after living in misery for six months as the bumbling Marie Stopes team had cut her intestine during the sterilization that should not have been done in the first place as she was pregnant. [break]
“She died of respiratory problem and cardiac failure,” a KMC doctor involved in her treatment said.
Kamala was readmitted at KMC 20 days ago following septicemia and multiple organ failure, according to the KMC doctor. “We did an operation for fecal fistula (hole in intestine) last Friday and she was recovering. But she showed pulmonary problems and the pumping of her heart became weaker since Monday,” the doctor added.
Kamala´s death has left her husband Dan Bahadur, also 38, alone to care for their five children, including a two-year-old daughter. Kamala´s body is currently at KMC and Dan Bahadur is waiting for relatives from Bardiya before carrying out the cremation.
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People from Marie Stopes, which has paid all medical expenses at KMC, have not come forward with any help so far for the cremation. “They said they would talk to their seniors about the expenses and compensation. But they have not contacted us for the past five hours,” Dan Bahadur said in the evening.
A Marie Stopes official, whom Dan Bahadur identified as Ram, disconnected the line when myrepublica.com contacted him by phone and did not take further calls.
Dan Bahadur conceded that Marie Stopes has borne all medical expenses and paid for board for one person attending on Kamala during her treatment in Kathmandu for over three months including the previous stint from mid-January to March-end.
“But we had to pay for others in Kathmandu during the treatment. Further, we have not been totally refunded the amount we spent for her treatment in Kohalpur in the beginning,” he said.
Dan Bahadur currently has incurred a debt, incurred during her treatment, of around Rs 300,000, for which he offered all his land as collateral. There is no way he can repay the debt and he also has to care for his old mother.
“The future of my children has been ruined,” Dan Bahadur said in a quavering voice, holding his five-year-old son, who seemed oblivious of the family´s tragedy.
Having lost his wife of 14 years, he hopes for some sort of financial assistance from Marie Stopes to help raise his children. “Please help me get justice for the sake of my children,” he pleaded to this scribe.
Synopsis of incident
The mother of five from Motipur in Shivapur-1, Bardiya district had gone with a friend on January 7 to a sterilization camp run by Marie Stopes in neighboring Bhurigaun village of Naulapur Village Development Committee (VDC), some five kilometers from her home. She told the medical team there that she had not had her period for two months.
“I told them I would get sterilized only if I was not pregnant,” Kamala had told this scribe in March. “They did a urine test, felt around my stomach, said I was not pregnant and got me sterilized,” Kamala had added.
She suffered intestinal perforation during the tubal ligation surgery and felt nausea immediately upon returning home. Dan Bahadur took her to Nepalgunj Medical College Teaching Hospital in Kohalpur as the problem persisted for a couple of days.
An ultra-sound showed that she was two months and eight days pregnant and, furthermore, doctors there found that she had suffered a cut in her intestine during the sterilization surgery. She was given repair surgery for the intestine.
The foetus aborted, she was brought to KMC in a critical condition in mid-January when the Kohalpur hospital referred her urgently to Kathmandu. She was kept here till March-end before being sent back to Bardiya.
premdhakal@myrepublica.com
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