Tainted or sub-standard drugs probably led to the deaths of 13 Indian women after sterilisation surgery at a family-planning “camp”, and owners of the factories that produced them have been summoned for questioning, a senior official said yesterday.
Meanwhile, the doctor who carried out the sterilisation of 83 women in under three hours at a hospital in the eastern state of Chhattisgarh denied reports the equipment he used was rusty or dirty, and blamed adulterated medicines for the tragedy.
“I am not the culprit. I have been made a scapegoat. It is the administration which is responsible for this incident,” Dr R.K. Gupta told Reuters in a dimly lit police hostel room after being taken into custody on Wednesday night.
We believe some mistake has been [made] but it’s purely accidental
Gupta said health workers gave the women ciprofloxacin, a commonly prescribed antibiotic, and the painkiller ibuprofen after operations conducted at the weekend in a grimy room of an unused private hospital in a village called Pandari.
Thirteen have died and scores are in hospital. Some of the sick women were operated on by another doctor at a second camp, which Gupta said was evidence he was not to blame.
The government of Chhattisgarh, one of India’s poorest states, banned medicines used at Gupta’s sterilisation camp, including Indian-made brands of ciprofloxacin and ibuprofen.
“Owners of the companies responsible for the sale of drugs have been summoned,” state Chief Minister Raman Singh told reporters. “They will all be questioned and we have sealed their factories.”
State health officials said police raided a local company, Mahawar Pharma, which had provided the antibiotics.
One of five doctors who have conducted autopsies since Saturday’s tragedy said the post-mortems were inconclusive and recommended chemical analysis for a clearer picture. “It is a mysterious case,” said the doctor, who declined to be named. “It can be drug toxicity, infection. We believe some mistake has been [made] but it’s purely accidental.”