Doc gets RI for death during abortion

MUMBAI: Sushma Jadhav (18) got herself admitted to Pearl Centre in Dadar for an abortion. She was six months into pregnancy and yet the doctor went ahead with the abortion, leading to Sushma’s life.
This happened in 1990. However, Sushma’s family took no action against the doctor owing to their poor economic condition and illiteracy. But the family welfare unit of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) refused to overlook the negligence and filed a complaint with the police.
The initiative of the BMC yielded results a few days ago. On July 31, Additional Sessions Judge P N Kashalkar sentenced Dr Purushottam Nayak with three years of rigorous imprisonment and asked him to pay Rs 15,000 to Sushma’s family.
The court came down heavily on the growing negligence by doctors. “This holds good for those running five star hospitals too. The care to be taken at the time of operation and after is not given priority,� the judge observed. Sushma approached Pearl Centre on July 25, 1990 for an abortion as she had just separated from her husband.
“The doctor advised her to go in for an abortion even though she was 24 weeks pregnant,� says Additional Public Prosecutor Mohan Sawant. As per the Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act, 1971, abortion could be performed up to 20 weeks only under certain conditions (up to 12 weeks any accredited doctor can carry it out and beyond that a second opinion is required).
“They injected her with 200 cc saline and it did not result in the termination of pregnancy. She died on July 29,� says Sawant. A post-mortem was conducted at the J J Coroner’s court on July 30.
“The post-mortem report said that the duration of the pregnancy was 24 weeks. The Director of Health Services and the state government also took expert opinion regarding the duration of pregnancy,� says Sawant.
As the family did not file a complaint, the family welfare unit did so after taking expert opinion and filed a case with the Mahim police in February 1993. The judge observed that there was culpable negligence on the part of the doctor in dealing with Sushma which resulted in her death. Dr Nayak was convicted under section 314 of Indian Penal Code which says, “Death caused by act done with intent to cause miscarriage.�