Top Indian expert says abortion would not have saved Savita's life

From Hindu Times: The president-elect of the Federation of Obstetric and Gynaecological Societies of India (FOGSI), Gynaecologist Hema Divakar, has commented on the actions of the physicians in Galway who treated Savita Halappanavaar. She said that had they aborted the child, as has been suggested in the outcry since her tragic death, it may have been equally dangerous to her.

Although the facts of the case are not clear yet, she said that “based on information in the media, in that situation of septicaemia, if the doctors had meddled with the live baby, Savita would have died two days earlier.”

Top Indian expert says abortion would not have saved Savita's life
The president-elect of the Federation of Obstetric and Gynaecological Societies of India (FOGSI) , Gynaecologist Hema Divakar, has commented on the actions of the physicians in Galway who treated Savita Halappanavaar. She said that had they aborted the child, as has been suggested in the outcry since her tragic death, it may have been equally dangerous to her.

Although the facts of the case are not clear yet, she said that “based on information in the media, in that situation of septicaemia, if the doctors had meddled with the live baby, Savita would have died two days earlier.”

Dr. Divakar's assertions were printed in the Indian paper The Hindu. The case has received a lot of public attention in India where the most prominent immediate reaction was to criticise the hospital's decision not to intervene to terminate Ms. Halapanavaar's pregnancy, by medical or surgical means.

Dr. Divakar disputed the now widely made assertion that abortion could have saved her life. Giving her opinion, she said that “Delay or refusal to terminate the pregnancy does not in itself seem to be the cause of death. Even if the law permitted it, it is not as if her life would have been saved because of termination,”

She said that it seems from the available information that “Severe septicaemia with disseminated intravascular coagulation (DIC), a life-threatening bleeding disorder which is a complication of sepsis which leads to major organ damage and loss of the mother’s blood due to severe infection, was the cause of death in Savita’s case." She added that "it is a sequence which cannot be reversed just by terminating the pregnancy.”

Dr. Divakar said that when infection requires aggressive treatment [at 17 weeks gestation] "the usual practice is to meddle the least until the mother is stable."

"This appears to be the actions taken by Savita's doctors," she said.

Top Indian expert says abortion would not have saved Savita's life