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Death of Karen Bahdal…Physician denies performing abortion on teen mother
The physician accused of causing the death of 18-year-old Karen Bahdal has denied that he performed an abortion on the teenaged mother.
Kaieteur News understands that the doctor issued the denial in a statement he sent recently to the Medical Council of Guyana through his attorney.
Karen Bahdal
The statement was issued after the Council requested that he give a written response to the allegation against him.
The Council is likely to place the case before a Disciplinary Committee, which would then send its findings back to the Council.
The Disciplinary Committee is chaired by a sitting Magistrate or retired Judge. Members of the Medical Council are also on the Committee.
Meanwhile, police officials disclosed that investigators have completed a report which will be sent in a few days to the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP).
According to relatives, Bahdal had her abortion on December 23, 2011, in a bottom flat at Mon Repos, East Coast Demerara, where the doctor ran a clinic.
She was admitted to the GPHC on December 24 after she began vomiting continuously and complaining of abdominal pains.
An ultrasound revealed that there was fluid in her stomach. Bahdal was taken to the hospital’s Operating Theatre where staff observed that both her uterus and bowel were perforated.
She underwent surgery to repair the damage, but by then, fluids from her bowels had already leaked into her stomach, and peritonitis had developed.
The teen’s condition worsened and she was taken to the Intensive Care Unit and placed on a ventilator but eventually succumbed.
A post mortem revealed that death was due to a perforated uterus and acute peritonitis.
The doctor reportedly refunded the $8,000 he had received for terminating the pregnancy after learning that Bahdal was seriously ill.
Bahdal is survived by two children aged two years and four months respectively.
Some medical sources have suggested that Bahdal may not have been pregnant, but was only experiencing the symptoms of pregnancy when the ‘abortion’ was done.
They point to the fact that Bahdal’s second child is four months old, and that she was said to be some four months pregnant when she went to the physician. The sources have questioned whether the physician tried to confirm that the teen was indeed pregnant before attempting the ‘termination.’
The accused physician holds a prominent post at a private hospital, besides running his East Coast clinic.
Health officials have confirmed that he was previously licensed to perform medical terminations, but has not been licensed in four years.
In addition, he was never licensed to perform abortions at the Mon Repos flat where the procedure was done on Bahdal.
The physician has since closed the clinic.
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