JAIPUR, MARCH 31: In yet another example of the problems with the country's family planning programme, an 18-year-old, newly married girl was ``mistakenly'' sterilised at a camp in a remote village of Rajasthan. The incident happened on February 7, but news about it has come only now.The girl had gone to the camp for a pregnancy check-up. But the doctors present at the camp organised at Khajwana village of Nagaur district to conduct family planning operations apparently didn't bother to find out why she was there, and just did the needful.State Health Secretary Ram Lubhaya confirmed the incident when contacted by The Indian Express, adding that a preliminary inquiry by the Chief Medical Officer of Nagaur had indicted three doctors and a supervisor. All four have reportedly been suspended ``pending suitable action.''Lubhaya said he had also directed the district medical and health authorities to examine the girl, do a corrective operation and bring her to Jaipur's Sawai Mansingh Hospital fortreatment if necessary, all free of cost. Describing the wrong operation as ``unfortunate'' and ``unpardonable'', the minister also promised stringent punishment to the four accused - Dr Neelima Rani Chugh (surgeon), Dr Sushma Harsh (anaesthetist), Dr Pratap Ram Sirwai (in-charge of the camp) and Supervisor Prabhu Ram.According to sources, the girl, who had been married six months earlier, had come to the camp with her brother-in-law as she feared she was pregnant and had wanted to confirm it with doctors.She had reportedly joined a queue of women outside an operation theatre there, not knowing what the line was for. When her turn came, the doctors apparently asked her to lie on a table and then proceeded to install a ring in her left fallopian tube through laparoscopy. The right tube was reportedly spared only because the girl complained of pain on her left side.Shockingly, says sources, the doctors as well as the supervisor did not bother to either cross-check her name against the list of personsto be operated upon, to ask for her registration card, to seek her pre-operative test report, or to even find out the name of the person who had ``motivated'' her to go to the camp.The lapse was detected only after two days, when the camp concluded and the staff discovered they had operated upon one more woman than they had listed. The girl was then sent for and the ring installed in her left tube removed.After four days, the district health officer got to know about the incident. He reportedly persuaded the family to take the victim to Merta town and get her examined.
