My Introduction to Female Feticide

The snaps contained in this post are quite hideous, repulsive, very sickening . . . very unpleasant . . . all synonyms one can think about something very nasty and distasteful. Please view with discretion and ensure children are not around when you view this post. 

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The following incident was my first exposure to the ghastly practice of female feticide in the country.

This happened in 2003 while I was in NJH as a junior doctor. I had lost all these snaps till I found them in a old CD which was kept in our office. 

I took some time deciding whether I should post this here. 

It was towards winter of 2003 when a lady was brought in by her family in vague complaints of bleeding from the vagina. She was in shock and sepsis. We did an ultrasound which showed a contracted uterus with some retained products inside. The relatives agreed that she had an abortion. They said she was 3 months pregnant. 

One of our senior consultants took her in for a curratage of the uterus. In the theatre, he discovered that the uterus was perforated after the sound he put into the uterus went all the way in.

He took a decision to operate her. 

And this was what we found inside the peritoneal cavity. 

 

A macerated dead GIRL baby of approximately 28 weeks gestation

And this is the posterior wall of her uterus. 

The photographs say it all. An attempted septic abortion where the abortionist had perforated the posterior wall of the uterus and baby slipped into the peritoneal cavity. 

Such incidents continue to happen. Couple of weeks back, one of my local acquaintance confided that there was a maternal death in our nearby village about 6 months back after the lady tried to abort more than half way through her pregnancy. 

Please excuse if this post has hurt you. But, this is reality. 

The Call . . .

Every time I write a posting about the need for more committed people to hospitals such as NJH (there are about 100 odd hospitals who are in situations similar to us with a similar mission and vision), I receive mails and long phone calls from people who feel that I'm questioning those who serve in more affluent parts of the globe and the country.

One of my friends told me outright not to take people on a guilt trip.  

At the onset, let me apologise if I've hurt anybody by such sort of posts. 

However, I feel that healthcare professionals should know that there are places within our large country where people are dying because of the lack of basic medical facilities. Like facilities (personnel and infrastructure) to do Cesarian sections, blood transfusions, early diagnosis of tuberculosis, regular antenatal care, neonatal care etc. etc. 

I'm fascinated by institutions like the Christian Medical College, Vellore which was started because of a young girl witnessed 3 maternal deaths. Similarly, there are umpteen other healthcare facilities which were started by people, mainly missionaries from abroad, as a result of witnessing or hearing about one incident of poor/absent healthcare facilities in some part of the country. 

I can only wonder why such a sort of enthusiasm is not seen during the present age. At that point of time, people seemed to have a calling for such sort of work. And I firmly believe that one needs to have a specific calling for this. 

About 20 years back, coming to NJH was a big challenge. In fact, telephones arrived at NJH only in 1995. Now, facilities have grown so much that I can skype anybody in the world sitting at NJH. I can fly directly to my home in Trivandrum within 24 hours if there is an emergency. One cannot imagine the challenges faced by Dr. Kniss and his family 51 years back when there was not even electricity. 

Today morning, I happened to have 2 sisters from a hospital in Bihar. A 300 bedded hospital, they've had to close down as there were no doctors. Quite a huge healthcare set-up during it's heydays, one could not believe that this could happen to them. 

And there are quite a number of similar hospitals which are already closed down or is on the verge of shutting down . . . A major issue. 

Then I wonder . . . Has the Lord stopped calling people? Maybe, Christian mission healthcare institutions have lost their relevance. 

Or more important . . . Have we stopped hearing the call? If this is the case, our prayer would be that more of us would hear the call . . . and be true to the call . . .

New faces . . .

Over the last 2 weeks, we've had 2 major appointments at NJH. And we are quite thankful and proud of them. 

Yesterday, Ms. Meghala Ramaswamy joined as our new Administrator. Someone for whom we had been praying for quite a long time. Ms. Meghala comes with experience in some of the major mission hospitals of the country including the prestigious Christian Medical College, Vellore from where she had done her MPhil in Hospital Administration, the Christian Fellowship Hospital, Oddanchatram, the Graham Steines Hospital, Hospital and H4B. 

Mr. Jayakumar, Regional Director, EHA of our region introducing Ms. Meghala

Mr. Jonathan Hongsha has taken over Information Technology since the last 2 weeks. A graduate in Information Technology from Delhi, Jonathan would be taking the lead in co-ordinating the further computerisation of the hospital and streamlining of information storage. 

Jonathan Hongsha at his work-station

Please remember both of them in your prayers . . . 

Exposure . . .

I've been at the Christian Medical College, Vellore since the last 2 days. Was part of a process which is unique to CMC, Vellore where medical students visit secondary hospitals such as ours. Similar to last year, a batch of 2nd year medical students will spend one week with us. 

A major learning experience for these budding doctors. And we're excited about it. 

The ultimate outcomes of the program being to encourage these students to be part of institutions such as ours for at least some part of their lives if not the whole part. Only time will tell if this program achieved this outcome. 

Today evening, few of the consultants from the participating hospitals sat discussing about the big need for more people to come over to hospitals such as NJH. The refrain from each one of them was the same . . . of doctors getting exhausted . . . and nobody to share the workload.

We shared stories of our colleagues who had gone off for a break . . . gone off abroad . . . got frustrated . . . left with quite a lot of bitterness . . .  and the work load only increasing. No sign of any respite.

I had just got a phone call from back home at NJH that there were 2 maternal deaths in the last 24 hours.

The need for more people to help us was very much evident. 

I thought of the place where we sat. I wondered if CMC, Vellore has lived up to the expectation of sending more doctors to rural areas of the country.

Nowadays, when we talk to our colleagues on going to poorly served areas of the country, the conversation changes to the problems associated with such a posting. The lack of schooling, poorer salaries, needs of parents, crude living conditions . . . the list goes on and on.

Yeah . . . all of them genuine reasons. And that is when we appreciate the contribution that medical missionaries from abroad has made to the country . . . where they left their homes far far away to serve a land quite alien to them. 

There is a paradigm shift in the approach of healthcare professionals towards sickness and the sick. It has not done good for the poor and the marginalised. 

I hope and pray that as the students from Vellore come to have their one week of posting with us, we would be able to make some amount of impact in their lives and the choices that they make in the future. 

Plenty . . .

In one of my posts towards the beginning of my blogging life, I had mentioned about how cheap vegetables could become in our region especially if the climate is really good. 

After that post, the prices of vegetables did not come down as much as during that time . . .   till last week. 

And it happened within the campus. 

We have one drum stick tree (moringa oleifera) in the nursing school. One of our senior staff informed me that the tree is full of the drumstick fruits. And that it needed to be harvested. 

I requested the guys from the maintenance department to pluck the fruits. I expected about 100 odd fruits to be brought to my office. Instead, I had about a quintal of them brought it. 

And then I found out that it did not have much takers. There were if I was going to distribute them free. 

And only the office staff know the difficulty with which we disposed off the fruits ensuring that none was wasted. There were quite a lot of them who commented on how often they had been having this vegetable for some time in the recent weeks. 

About the drumstick . . . it is touted as an answer to malnutrition in the third world countries. 

I wish we could do some more planning and ensure that everybody understands it's nutritional and commercial value.