Surrogate mother dies of complications

AHMEDABAD (TOI) : Premila Vaghela, 30, had opted to become a surrogate mother and deliver child of a US-based couple to supplement her family income and brighten the future of her own two kids.
On Wednesday, Premila, who was eight months pregnant, died due to unexplained complications. But she completed her job - the child was delivered and is in the NICU recuperating from early birth.

Surrogacy has picked up majorly all over Gujarat where Anand is considered the global surrogacy capital. Ahmedabad too caters to a big number of couples who medically need a womb to carry their child. Couples are known to pay anywhere between Rs 2.5 lakh and Rs 4 lakh to women who offer their wombs on rent to conceive and deliver the child. The decent money offered by couples, majority of who are NRGs and foreigners, attracts many women from poor socio-economic backgrounds to offer themselves as surrogates.
Premila paid the price of offering herself as surrogate with her life. Dr Manish Banker of Pulse Hospital, where Premila was a surrogate, said that they are clueless as to why Premila developed a fatal health incident. Dr Banker specializes in offering In Vitro Fertilization (IVF) services.

"Premila had come for routine check-up and was sitting in the hospital. While she was chatting with her husband Karsan, she suddenly had a convulsion and fell on the floor. We immediately took her for treatment. Since she was showing signs of distress, we conducted an emergency caesarean section delivery," said Dr Banker. The child, who was born a month premature, was admitted in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU). Dr Banker said that the child should be stable soon.

Meanwhile, Premila developed severe complications and she was shifted to Sterling Hospital for better intensive care. "We shifted her to Sterling Hospital for intensive care but she failed to respond and died," said Dr Banker.

Sterling Hospital officials said that Premila was brought to the hospital in an extremely critical condition. "She was suffering a major cardiac arrest. We tried to resuscitate her but she succumbed," said a senior official.
Dr Banker said that they had notified the death to the police and details of post-mortem report were awaited to know the exact cause of death. Vastrapur police said a case of accidental death had been filed. and further inquiry would be conducted on basis of the post-mortem report.