The business of organ removal

A recent RTI query in Rajasthan revealed a shocking news — the uterus of 226 women were removed in three hospitals of the State. The hospitals earned about Rs 14,000 for every case, it was alleged. That there was method in the madness was evident in the numbers — out of the 385 women who visited these hospitals between March to September last year, the uterus of 226 was removed!

These hospitals should have alerted the authorities concerned, if such a high percentage of women patients required uterus removal.

Lure of money?

All the three hospitals are located in Bandikui town in Dausa district, the erstwhile Lok Sabha constituency of late Congress leader Rajesh Pilot, who died in a road accident.

There are allegations that these operations were ‘unnecessary and designed for monetary benefits'.

The question is: Was it lack of diagnostic skills or simple lure of money? Only a probe into the incident can shed some light.

This is the same State where 17 pregnant women died recently after being injected with contaminated glucose.

But, even as experts blame the backwardness of the area and the vulnerability of rural women, women in cities are not better off either.

Lack of diagnostic skill

Stories abound about women, some still in their reproductive prime, being advised to remove their uterus.

But the danger appears more for those past their prime and nearing menopause (even better if they have medical insurance) as doctors then do not hesitate to suggest removal of ovaries as well to ‘avoid any problem later'. And the tab? Well, anything between Rs 30,000 and Rs 90,000.

Though not wishing to generalise, in the few cases that I have come across, much of such medical ‘advice' has come from doctors in private nursing homes.

“It's basically a lack of diagnostic skills. Nobody wants to take a chance. So they just go for rooting out the problem itself,” says a senior doctor.

Take the case of a friend who was suffering from a problem. She consulted a private doctor in Kolkata.

A battery of tests and a bill running up to thousands of rupees later, she was advised hysterectomy. She went in for a second opinion at Delhi. The same story and a bigger hole in her bank account.

After much cajoling, she agreed to visit the government-run All India Institute of Medical Sciences, but only for “diagnosis”, she said squeamishly.

Armed with her reports, she entered the gynae ward. There was a long queue.

When her turn came, the doctor on duty dumped all her reports, ordered fresh tests in the hospital for a fairly paltry amount.

A week later, she was put on a course of broad spectrum antibiotics.

This was 10 years ago. Her uterus is still intact.

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