16 December,2017 12:36 PM IST | Mumbai | Rupsa Chakraborty
One can't be sure if this is a Christmas miracle, but a baby boy born on Monday to a Kurla-based couple at Nair hospital, had been aborted nearly six months ago when his mother was two months pregnant
One can't be sure if this is a Christmas miracle, but a baby boy born on Monday to a Kurla-based couple at Nair hospital, had been aborted nearly six months ago when his mother was two months pregnant. While the parents, Deepa and Yashwant Kadam, have welcomed the baby, who they've named Magic, they have registered a complaint with the consumer court and Chief Minister's Office against Sion hospital, where the abortion was carried out.
Baby parents
Unknown to the mother, who had undergone tubectomy to prevent the birth, the child kept growing inside her despite her menstrual cycles continuing normally. She only realised she was still carrying the baby, two months after the abortion, when her stomach suddenly bloated.
The baby
'Couldn't afford another kid'
Deepa, who is already a mother of two daughters, aged 4 and 6, said she didn't want to give birth to another child as the previous two deliveries had taken immense toll on her health. The family is also not financially strong to raise another child. Deepa's husband Yashwant earns only Rs 8,000 every month.
Deepa Yashwant, mother
So in May this year, when the couple learned that Deepa had conceived, they decided to approach doctors at Sion Hospital to terminate her pregnancy. On June 12, she got admitted to Sion Hospital, where she underwent tubectomy - a permanent method of contraception where the fallopian tubes are blocked so that the ova or eggs are prevented from travelling to the uterus from the ovary. Soon after that, her menstrual cycles also began, allaying any fears that she could have been pregnant.
However, she realised something had gone amiss two months later, when her stomach began to swell, and she suddenly stopped menstruating. "I went to the hospital for a check-up, where they confirmed that I was still carrying the child," said Deepa. When the family questioned the doctors, they allegedly claimed that they had done nothing wrong. Sonography reports from the hospital in September revealed that the child was around 21 weeks old. As the Medical Termination Act doesn't allow for aborting a child after 20 weeks, she was forced to carry the baby.
Mother at risk
The next few months, however, were not easy for Deepa. She had turned pale and weak, and had been bedridden for the last few months. On Monday, after she developed labour pains, a month prior to her delivery date, she was rushed to Nair Hospital. But, the doctors raised a red flag as she had developed complications. "The kidneys of the child had swollen, and blood circulation had stopped inside," a doctor at Nair Hospital said. "The doctors were not sure if the child would survive, but he did. He is strong," Deepa said from her hospital bed. The parents have now named their son Magic. "He is under observation at intensive care unit. But, out of danger," the doctor added.
Parents file complaint
Considering the health risk to both the mother and child, the parents have now filed a complaint with the consumer court and also written to Chief Minister's Office citing medical negligence on the hospital's part. "We already have two daughters, who are very young. If anything had happened to my wife, who would have taken responsibility? What they have done is unacceptable," said Yashwant. Despite repeated attempts, Dr Niranjan Chavan, head of the department of gynaecology at Sion Hospital, refused to comment.
Rare case
According to Dr Archana Patel, a city-based gynaecologist, the case appears to be a rare one. "If she was sterilised, the doctors should have checked the post abortion reports properly to confirm if the termination was successful. It is tough to comment on the case without proper examination," she said.
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