Womb stitched with fetus inside: Comilla civil surgeon summoned

The High Court today summoned the civil surgeon of Comilla and two others to appear before it on November 7 to explain their role regarding the incident of stitching a woman's womb leaving a fetus inside following a surgery.

The two others who will have to appear before the court are the owner of Gouripur Life Hospital and Digital diagnostic and the doctor who conducted the C-section delivery at the hospital in Daudkandi Sheikh Hosne Ara.

The court also issued a rule asking the respondents to explain why they should not be directed to stop negligence in providing treatment to the patients.

The health secretary, home secretary, director general of Department of Health Services, civil surgeon of Comilla, head of gynaecology department of Comilla Medical College, mayor and chief executive officer of Comilla City Corporation, deputy commissioner of Comilla, owner of Gouripur Life Hospital and Hosne Ara have been made respondents to the rule.

The HC bench of Justice Salma Masud Chowdhury and AKM Zahirul Hoque came up with the order and the rule on a suo moto (Voluntary) move following two newspaper reports over the incident published on the Daily Prothom alo and The New Age on October 26.

On September 18, Hosne Ara told relatives that Khadija Begum had a baby girl and there was a tumour inside her.

Hosne Ara delivered the baby girl and left what she thought was a tumour inside Khadija's womb.

But the test found that she had twins and one of the babies was still in her womb.

She was admitted to Dhaka Medical College Hospital (DMCH). Physicians conducted a surgery and delivered a stillborn yesterday.

Salma Rouf, head of obstetrics and gynaecology at DMCH, told The Daily Star that Khadija had experienced a very rare phenomenon where one of the twins develops within the uterus and another outside of it.

This led Gouripur physician Hosne Ara to assume that the baby outside the uterus was a tumour.