A 30-year-old mother of two has tragically died after having a minor surgical abortion at a women’s health clinic in Melbourne.
Daily Mail Australia reports that Ms Harjit Kaur, an IT worker, had accidentally fallen pregnant in early January 2024.
The couple made the tough decision to have an abortion and after consulting with a doctor, they scheduled a ‘routine minor gynaecological procedure under anaesthetic’ for 12 January 2024 in Melbourne’s south-east.
Mr Sukjinder Singh, the husband, told Daily Mail Australia that at 12.57 pm, Ms Kaur messaged that she was heading into the operation room. An hour later, the doctor called to inform him that the procedure was successful but, while transferring Ms Kaur into the general ward, her heartbeat stopped. An ambulance was called and the paramedics tried CPR to revive Ms Kaur.
Mr Singh reached the hospital and five minutes later the doctor told him:
“Sorry your wife is dead.”
Mr Singh and Ms Kaur married in 2018 and they were now preparing to buy a family home to raise their four-year-old daughter and two-year-old son.
He said in a statement:
“I’m in dark and unable to work with this grief and two kids. My life is destroyed in a minute. I cannot explain my situation now. The hard work and too much struggle she done just for her and kids better future and everything is just destroyed.”
Mr Singh has started a GoFundMe for funeral and support costs as he takes time off to be with his children. Members of the community so far have raised more than $54,000 of the $70,000 target.
In a statement to Daily Mail Australia, the medical director of the clinic said:
“Despite our best efforts we could not save Ms Kaur. My staff have all received and been offered counselling.”
Suresh Rajan Community Advocate acting for Sukhjinder highlighted some concerns “We are seeing too many of these issues in our health systems arising. Many of them are from our wider Indian community. We need to see a proper and thorough investigation of exactly what went wrong here to ensure no repeat occurrence.”
“One death is one too many. If this was preventable what caused it? Let us then address the underlying cause so as not to have another tragedy such as this.”
“We owe it to our young people that they survive and thrive in safety. Our systems need to ensure this,” explained Mr Ranjan.
Daily Mail Australia reports that the doctor has stood down voluntarily pending clearance of any surgical cause of death. Daily Mail Australia and The Australia Today do not suggest any wrongdoing by either the doctor or the anaesthetist.
An investigation is now underway to determine the cause of Ms Kaur’s death, with police and the coroner involved in the case.
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