A student at Calcutta National Medical College and Hospital (CNMCH) has come under fire for sharing a photograph that shows her performing a surgical suturing procedure on a patient following childbirth.
Dr Sudeshna, an intern, was seen wearing surgical scrubs, a hairnet, gloves, and a mask, in the photograph. It shows her holding a needle holder and suture thread attached to a curved needle, apparently while suturing tissue near the patient’s pelvic area. “This is to apologise for my misdemeanour in my recent tweets.
I completely understand there is a huge social and personal sentiment attached to a new born baby and I am really sorry for hurting it, as I genuinely didn’t know it wasn’t okay to do it – you observe and learn,” she had said in an X post dated September 5. (Also read: MP doctor walks out after argument with patient’s family, IPS officer supports her )
“Silai bunai aata hai? (Do you know how to sew?),” she had captioned the pics. “I have informed consent from the mother(4 hours post delivery),she even offered to/and took pictures with her child in my arms,” Dr Sudeshna said.
She had also posted pictures of the newborn, for which she later apologised. She has since switched her profile to private. (Also read: Obgyn shares raw moment from operating theatre after delivering newborn: ‘Baby cried, I smiled’ ) However, the picture of the new mother was reposted on X, where the intern doctor faced backlash for breaching the patient’s privacy and sharing pictures from the delivery room. The Kolkata -based intern doctor has since defended herself, saying she had explicit consent from the new mom to share the photograph online. The medical student pointed out that her photograph did not breach NMC guidelines as she was not promoting any pharmaceutical products.
One of her critics was Dr BL Bairwa, who called the posting of the photograph “unethical”.
The picture appears to have been taken in a delivery room and was shared on Dr Sudeshna’s Instagram earlier this month. The medical intern had earlier apologised for sharing pictures of the newborn online.
Next, an X user claimed that she breached the patient’s privacy by posting the picture on Instagram. “Newborns can’t consent, so it falls to parents. And asking a mother in labour, in pain and dependent on your care, is hard to call voluntary. Someone under general anaesthesia can’t consent at all,” the X user noted. She claimed to have gotten the woman’s consent four hours after delivery. The Kolkata-based intern at CNMCH further claimed that the new mother had even offered to take a picture of the doctor holding the baby.
Dr Sudeshna defended herself today by saying that the woman was not under the effects of anaesthesia when she consented to have the picture shared online.
