Hope newborn: Tsunami homes wait for the stork to stop by

Nagapattinam, the worst-hit district in Tamil Nadu, lost nearly 7,000 lives; around 2000 of them were children. Around 20 women then underwent recanalisation so they could conceive again. Geetha and Kumari are the first to report success.

‘‘The doctor at the Nagapattinam Government Hospital did a scan yesterday and confirmed that I was nearly three months pregnant,’’ an excited Geetha (29) told The Indian Express over phone from Nagapattinam. ‘‘I am praying it will be a baby girl. I will name her Jotika or Sosika after the daughters (aged five and three) I lost,’’ she added happily. Geetha, who battled for life at the Thanjavur Government Hospital after the tsunami, heard the news of her children’s death three days after she regained consciousness.

Kumari (28) was too shy to speak to anyone when the village health nurse confirmed this evening that she was pregnant too. Her husband N. Sivakumar, a fisherman, said they had lost two of their three daughters to the tsunami. ‘‘We lost Nitya (9) and Sandya (5). Now we want a daughter again,’’ he said. Villagers were able to find only Sandya’s body, entangled in a fishing net wrapped around a bush a few kilometres away.

Dr K Thilagam, senior assistant surgeon at the Nagapattinam government hospital, said she had conducted the scan on Geetha and confirmed her pregnancy. ‘‘I was told by the village health nurse that Kumari too has shown positive result for pregnancy after the urine test. I have asked Kumari to come for a scan…We are happy because the success rate for pregnancy in women after recanalisation is only about 50 to 60 per cent,’’ she said.

‘‘Seventeen women did recanalisation. Geetha and Kumari are among the first to show results,’’ said S. Ranjani, the Akkaraipettai health nurse who had helped deliver many of the children who died in the tsunami.

The state government’s aid of Rs 25,000 for the recanalisation operations is yet to reach these women but they used the ex-gratia from the Centre and state towards surgeries. God willing, they said, the sound of children could wipe out all their sorrows.