Horrible tale of 17-year-old egg donor girl

12 July, 2012

It is very easy in India to trap the teenagers and force them to do illegitimate trade. Even the parents of these girls don't know what is happening with their children. The story of Sushma Pandey - a teen egg donor is an eyeopener for all of us.

INDIAN HEALTH Ministry might have set guidelines for donating eggs for fertilisation but that doesn't stop the illegitimate trade that is flourishing in infertlity clinics across the country. The two-year-old case of Sushma Pandey's death might bring into limelight the way our country's assisted reproductive clinics function.

The 17-year-old girl died suddenly two days after she visited a fertility clinic. According to the girl's mother, Pramila Pandey, the family did not know about her egg donations to infertility clinics despite she being under the minimum prescribed age of 21. Pandey believes that her daughter might have been misled by someone and fears that there may be more teenagers in this trade.

“It is shocking that the case has come in public glare only after Mumbai High Court pulled up police for not probing the role of the hospital and circumstances that led to girl’s death,” said Malvika Singhvi, Chairperson of NGOs, running the Save the Teenagers life.

Pandey's distressed mother doubted her employer Sunil Chaumal, an owner of scrap depot where she worked. The mother was on her daughter’s side when she died in one of civil hospitals in Mumbai on August 10, 2010. The family of girl had lodged a complaint against Chaumal on August 11, 2010. As per ICMR guidelines, egg donor has to be between 21 and 35 years apart from blood group, physical fitness, height, weight, educational qualification, profession etc. must be recorded and above all there has to be gap of three months between donations.

“These young girls easily fall in the trap of trade due to their innocence and think that it is easy way to earn some extra bucks. But they do not recognize the process of exciting hormones and providing eggs,” said Dr. Anjali Chug, a gynaecologist, running her own clinic in Mumbai.

Justice R.C. Chavan who is investigating the case observed that the chargesheet does not show any progress against Rotunda – The Centre of Human Reproduction’, Bandra, Mumbai which has a record of victim being an egg donor on three occasions prior to unfortunate incident. The victim was underage at that time and she had donated eggs for at least one-and-a half years.

Samaullah alias Shanu is alleged to have taken Sushma to the clinic last time. He has been booked in the case and his release plea is still pending. The records of hospital reveal that the victim had visited the hospital for donating eggs in February 2009, October 2009 and last on August 8, 2010.

She was registered as Sushma Dubey and hospital has a proof of age as PAN card which reflected her age as 19 years. The very next day she complained of abdominal pain and died. Investigation is under progress. “It is case of fraud where so many people get involved and are trying to escape. I believe infertility clinics should adopt strict norms before they carry eggs donation procedures. Any doctor can easily be able to recognize the donor's age by examination. It is surprising hospital is comparing her age with PAN card,” concluded Dr. Chug.