[1]The Indian Medical Association on Tuesday justified the mass caesarean sections that took place at the Cherthala taluk hospital and said they were done for the welfare of patients.
The IMA state president, Dr G. Vijayakumar, told mediapersons that a preliminary probe by the association revealed that doctors did not err in conducting the caesarean in a row as there was the prospect of many employees being absent during Easter holidays.
“Since it is a team that conducts such surgeries, doctors undertook it when staff was available,” he said. “The issue is being blown out of proportion and it will only weaken the morale of doctors working in difficult conditions in government hospitals.”
“Think of a situation when patients develop difficulties and there is nobody to attend to them,” he remarked. “Doctors in Cherthala wanted to avoid this. It was done with good intentions.”
Dr Vijayakumar said the IMA probe revealed that of the 21 caesarean that were conducted at the hospital, 12 were undertaken because the first births were through surgery and the rest were taken up owing to various complications including wrong position of the foetus.
He added that doctors in most hospitals were also under pressure from patients to undertake caesarean since mothers did not want to suffer the pain of natural childbirth and families want children to be born on auspicious days.
“If the media hypes this issue, the government will force doctors to bring down caesarean and this will affect the poor, ” he said.
Links:
[1] http://archive.asianage.com/27cjpgcropdisplayjpg-249