A doctor has been arrested in connection with the deaths of 14 women at a state-run sterilisation camp in the Indian state of Chhattisgarh.
Dr RK Gupta and his assistant carried out the tubectomies on 83 women in Pendari village in Bilaspur district.
The fourteenth woman died on Wednesday night, while another woman has died after an operation at a second camp.
In total more than 90 women remain in hospital, many in a critical condition, following operations at the two camps.
Protests have been held over the deaths, and the state government has ordered an inquiry. It is still not clear what caused the deaths.
Dr Gupta, who had been earlier feted by the state government for conducting a record number of sterilisations, was suspended after the deaths of women at a camp in Bilaspur on Saturday. He was arrested on Wednesday night.
Reports say he operated on 83 women in five hours – government rules say one surgeon should only perform 35 operations in a day.
When the women were brought in to hospital after the operations, they were vomiting continuously and their blood pressure had fallen dramatically, correspondents said.
The women told the BBC their operations lasted five minutes, as Yogita Limaye reports
Local health officials have denied any responsibility for the deaths, but some suggested that medical teams were under pressure from the authorities to perform too many operations in too little time.
State Health Minister Amar Aggarwal told BBC Hindi that the government “had banned six medicines” being used during such operations pending the results of the investigation.
Sterilisation camps are frequently held to carry out mass tubectomy operations for women – or vasectomies for men – and in some states, health workers receive money for each person they bring to a clinic to be sterilised.
Many of the women who take part are poor, and are often paid to be sterilised.
Female sterilisation works by sealing the fallopian tubes that carry eggs from the ovaries to the womb. This can be done using clips, clamps or small rings or by tying and cutting the tube – this stops the egg and sperm meeting, so pregnancy can’t occur.
Eggs will still be released from the ovaries as normal, but they will be reabsorbed by the body instead.
The procedure is very effective and straightforward when carried out correctly and by a highly trained professional. But it is not without risks.
It requires an anaesthetic and there is a risk of damage to other organs during the procedure. There can be bleeding and infection too. It should also be considered permanent – it is difficult to reverse.
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Source: BBC