Jyothi and Suman Kalyan were excited and anxious last week. Nine years after their wedding, they had opted for an In Vitro Fertilisation procedure at the Srujana Fertility Centre hospital in Nagole in the outskirts of Hyderabad.
On September 12, as 36-year-old Jyothi was wheeled in for an ovum pick up procedure or simple egg collection, Suman, a general physician, had never imagined the nightmare that would follow.
Today, Jyothi is in deep coma with 70 percent of her brain damaged, irreversibly. She was admitted to the Kamineni Hospital in Hyderabad after the general anaesthesia administered to her allegedly went wrong.
“At around 8.45 pm, Dr Soujanya, the gynecologist at the hospital said that Jyothi was tolerating short general anaesthesia and would be given general anesthesia. At around 9:30pm they said she was not recovering from general anaesthesia,” says Suman.
Suman says the couple were anxious, but hopeful that their second attempt at IVF would be successful. After failure of an IVF treatment followed by an ovum pick up procedure in a fertility hospital in Ameerpet in 2015, the couple had decided to take one more chance.
Suman says, “We shifted her to Omni Hospital on September 13th where the doctors said she was suffering from severe hypoxic brain damage. Later she was shifted to the Kamineni hospital. She has been on the ventilator for the past two weeks. Doctors said that 70 percent of her brain is irreversibly damaged,” he added.
Suman says that the doctors removed the tube used in the harvesting even before she had recovered from the anaesthesia’s effect, which he alleges led to the brain damage.
Suman and Jyothi like many other couples were initially not too worried about not having a baby. “The first year or two, we didn’t worry. Jyothi was keen on having a baby. Slowly we started fretting about it and finally opted for IVF. But it has ended like this,” he said.
He lodged a complaint against the five doctors involved in the procedure and a case was registered by the with Chaitanyapuri police station under IPC Section 336 (Act endangering life or personal safety of others).
Dr. Soujanya who conducted the surgery told TNM, “We are professionally damaged right now. I don't want to comment on this case. They have filed a case against us. So let the court decide.”