Doc in dock for aborting 6-month foetus in 2011

A doctor at a private clinic in Chirag Dilli has been removed by Delhi Medical Council from the list of registered doctors for six months for allegedly carrying out an abortion on a 26-year-old woman during the sixth month of her pregnancy.

Another clinic at Greater Kailash 1 has also come under the scanner where the woman was shifted when her condition became critical. Her uterus was ruptured and she suffered injuries on her bladder in the 2011 case.

According to the woman’s husband, who complained to the police for medical negligence in the case, the patient was shifted to Agarwal Medical Centre in GK 1 in the doctor’s car.
The clinic has been issued a warning in the case. It has also been accused of not maintaining records of salaries being paid to consultants at the centre or maintaining patients’ entries.

However, the twist in the case comes now as the Delhi Medical Council has already written to police to file a case against the couple for approaching the doctor to abort a six-month-old foetus, which is illegal under the law.

Also, the couple had a daughter as their first child which indicates this was a case of female foeticide, sources in the medical body said.

The DMC has referred the case to the Department of Health and Family Welfare and police to take strict action against the doctor and the clinic working in collusion with her. Even though the woman was operated twice at Agarwal Medical Centre, it has no entry against the patient’s name.

A foetus can be aborted beyond 12 weeks only if the pregnancy poses a threat to the mother or the foetus has shown any abnormality.

Even then, a foetus can be aborted only till 20 weeks under the supervision of two gynaecologists in a registered clinic.

“The case dates back to 2011. We were first approached by the Malviya Nagar police station where the patient’s husband lodged a complaint of medical negligence. The Medical Council of India then referred the matter to us. Dr Anusha Joshi performed the abortion at her clinic which is not a registered centre. When the situation went out of hand, she was shifted to Agarwal Medical Centre, where two successive operations were carried out. The surgeon and anaesthesist have also been issued warnings,” said Dr Girish Tyagi, Registrar, DMC.

Dr Joshi, who is registered with the DMC as an MBBS appears as a gynaecologist on the letterhead. “This is also a violation of the regulations of the Indian Medical Council as a physician cannot claim to be a specialist without a postgraduate degree,” said a DMC member.