Tribal made to wait hours for laparoscopy

Tribal made to wait hours for laparoscopy
RAKSHIT SONAWANE

NASHIK, DECEMBER 28: Tribal women from the Surgana tehsil discovered on Monday that merely realising the importance of family planning was not enough. They also have to prepare for a long wait, till some of them faint and are eventually turned back by health officials.

A laparoscopy camp had been organised by the family planning unit of the State Government in the Surgana rural hospital on Monday. In all, 105 tribal women had enrolled themselves for undergoing the surgery and were admitted into the hospital on Sunday.

The women were kept hungry for the surgery and the laparoscopy camp was to begin at 9.00 am on Monday. However, the health officials did not reach Surgana in time and the women had to wait till 6.30 pm, which was when the team of health officials, led by the civil surgeon Dr Y H Doiphode, finally arrived.

By the time the hungry women had become impatient and four of them had even fainted. The incident enraged some youths who had an altercation with the officials. The officials laterrefused the perform the operations and returned to Nashik.

When contacted, Dr Doiphode told The Indian Express that only one woman had fainted and that the laparoscopy camp had been suspended because some youths had manhandled the doctors. He said that he had informed the authorities that no camp would be held in Surgana in future.

Dr Doiphode said that the delay in reaching Surgana was because one of the doctors had become sick. He, however, said that such camps usually began in the evening around 4.00 pm. He said that he, along with two doctors from Nashik, had reached Surgana around 6.30 pm and were assaulted by some youths.

He claimed that only one woman had fainted and that the women had not been fasting since Sunday, as alleged by the youths. He said that the women were not allowed to take food from Monday morning. He further said that the team of doctors was prepared to conduct the operations and would have completed it by 10.00 pm, but the youths and the relatives of the women did notallow it, saying that the surgery should be performed the next day.

Dr Doiphode said that the doctors were assaulted by the mob for reaching late at the hospital and even the local police adopted a soft attitude towards the assaulters. He said that he had informed the authorities about the incident and was not in favour of conducting another laparoscopy camp in Surgana.