Surgery: Doctor arrested over death of 13 women

An Indian doctor who performed sterilisation surgeries that led to the death of 13 women had been arrested, officials said on Thursday.

The arrest followed media reports of another death after surgery at a separate hospital in Chhattisgarh state.

The doctor, R. K. Gupta, had been on the run after the deaths at a state-run hospital in Chhattisgarh’s Bilaspur district, but was caught and arrested in nearby Baloda Bazar district on Wednesday.

Gupta told reporters after being detained: “The surgeries went well but the problem was with the medicine given to the women after the operation as they started reporting problems after that.”

A report said the tubectomy operations were carried out on 83 women on Saturday, as part of a national programme to control birth rates.

However, on Monday, the women complained of pain, nausea and fever as 13 of them were recorded dead and some 60 women were still being treated at hospitals in Bilaspur.

Premier Narendra Modi had asked for “thorough investigation” into the case.

The 59-year-old doctor was given an award by the state government earlier this year for conducting a record 50,000 tubectomies in his career.

Officials said preliminary examinations suggested the deaths could have been caused by infection from possibly contaminated surgical equipment, but the cause would only be confirmed after autopsies.

dpa/NAN.