3 min readNew DelhiFeb 1, 2014 04:46 AM IST
First published on: Feb 1, 2014 at 04:46 AM IST
A 26-year-old woman from Darjeeling died hours after undergoing a procedure to donate oocytes (eggs) at an IVF clinic in Southeast Delhi’s Lajpat Nagar on January 29.
On Friday, after her family members alleged that medical negligence had led to her death, the All India Democratic Womens’ Association (AIDWA) wrote to the police commissioner, seeking a criminal investigation into the case and more regulation in assisted reproductive technology (ART) practices.
A medical board has been constituted at AIIMS to conduct an autopsy on the woman’s body on Saturday.
Her husband said he would comment on his wife’s case only after the autopsy report. “I am going through a very difficult time… and I have had a very bad two days. I do not want to comment on the case till the post-mortem report is out and we know the findings,” he said.
The AIDWA put out a statement claiming that agents of the Lajpat Nagar clinic “persuaded” her to donate the eggs for surrogacy. She and her husband had come from Darjeeling in search of jobs in Delhi.
“She started the procedure from January 8… On January 29, she was admitted… to undergo the final procedure… it began at 5.30 pm and, by 6.45 pm, she was moved to the recovery room. At this point, she phoned her husband,” the AIDWA stated.
When the husband reached the clinic, he found her unconscious and was told that she had been given a sedative, the AIDWA claimed. Her husband raised the alarm later and she was referred to a private hospital in Green Park around 10 pm. She was declared dead there two hours later, the AIDWA stated.
“Her husband made a PCR call stating that the doctors at the IVF centre did not exercise caution during the procedure and this led to his wife’s death. The body was taken to AIIMS and kept in the mortuary as we did not have a formal order to carry out the autopsy,” a police officer said.
“The autopsy will be carried out tomorrow. A case will be registered depending upon the post-mortem report,” the officer said.
A doctor from the clinic denied irregularities in the case. “We are in shock… We took her consent and conducted all necessary pre-anaesthetic tests.
All records have been handed over to police. She called her husband after the procedure. She collapsed suddenly. When we realised that she was not responding, we sent her to a higher centre in an ambulance we provided. It appears she had a massive cardiac arrest,” the doctor said.
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