Hysterectomies continue in Medak

Surgeries On Young Women Still On Though Doctors Deny Reports
Roli Srivastava | TNN

Kowdipally/Narsapur (Medak): Hysterectomy is suddenly a familiar medical term in these mandals of Medak district where hundreds of Lambada tribal women have undergone the procedure, some as young as 23 and 25. Villagers of these mandals say that over the last few days ‘doctors’ are wary of undertaking this uterus removal operation, some even citing “command from the top” for this sudden break on operations on women.

Last week, The Times of India had reported that women aged anywhere between 18 and 40 were undergoing the procedure for as routine complaints as abdominal pain. “The doctor has been declining to take up any operations. He says ‘upar se order hai’,” says Shaheen, resident of Kanvaram village and health volunteer with a social group CARPED.

The lull, however, is not really visible at these hubs of hysterectomy. A two-storey building on the main road of Kowdipally mandal with a long queue of patients and a street dog loitering around the ‘clinic’ is where several hysterectomies have been allegedly performed on Lambada women. Women allege they had consulted Dr M Sudhakar for abdominal pain and white discharge who prescribed this surgery that has driven them to menopause and a life of body pains, weakening bones and mood swings.

Dr Sudhakar, an Ayurvedic ‘Ratna’ doctor denies the charge saying his role is limited to calling a surgeon from Hyderabad to perform the procedure and names Dr Vidyasagar Rao who has a clinic in Kukatpally.

A few miles away from Dr Sudhakar’s clinic is another nursing home in Narsapur mandal that too is abuzz with activity with several patients flocking it. Dr Narsing Rao, the duty doctor here, is another name that comes up frequently during conversations with hysterctomy ‘victims’. This doctor too says the procedures are performed by Dr Vidyasagar Rao who visits the clinic twice a week.

“I have been visiting Narsapur for the last three years and would have performed 500 hysterectomies so far,” Dr Vidyasagar Rao tells this newspaper. Dr Rao, who consults in five nursing homes in Hyderabad apart from running his own clinic, adds a crucial detail – that such procedures are rampant in almost every district of the state and names Guntur, Warangal and Karimnagar.

Dr Vidyasagar, who has been practising in Hyderabad for seven years now, says he has not performed any hysterectomy on women in their 20′s. He denies visiting Dr Sudhakar’s ‘Mamatha’ nursing home saying that he visits it only occasionally.
However, his aide in Narsapur mandal, Dr Narsing Rao, says they get cases of women as young as 16 and 20 who have serious problems and have undergone hysterectomy in this nursing home.
Dr Vidyasagar Rao, a surgeon, further says cases of malignancy are higher among women in this area. He attributes poor medication for infection and even promiscuity as reasons for more women complaining of infections and even cervicitis.

But, Dr Veena Kumari, gynaecologist with the Community Health Centre in Narsapur, says the abdominal pain women complain of or even the white discharge are usually treatable with medication. She adds that many abdominal pain cases can be due to amoebiosis and that a gynaecologist’s presence is crucial in such surgeries.

“I take only 20 per cent of the decision to undertake a hysterectomy. The remaining are referrals from gynaecologists,” says Dr Vidyasagar. Asked what drives him to this rural pocket twice a week, he says he has personal relations with doctors there and goes on their request.

While patients say they pay at least Rs 10,000 for these procedures, the doctors say it ranges between Rs 4,000 and Rs 5,500. But, fortunes have changed at least for Dr Sudhakar. While he had a small clinic until a few years ago, he now runs a nursing home by the name ‘Mamatha’ in Kowdipally mandal.
 

ENCASHING IGNORANCE: Dr M Sudhakar’s clinic in Kowdipally mandal in Medak district, where hysterectomies on women have reportedly been performed
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Times of India June 21, 2007

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