Niketa Mehta

Mumbai/New Delhi, Aug. 14: Niketa Mehta, who failed to get Bombay High Court’s permission last week for a late abortion, and her husband Haresh have confirmed she had a miscarriage on Tuesday.

Nikhil Datar, the Mehtas’ gynaecologist who had supported the couple in the court case, said he was disappointed that the family “did not bother to inform me” and questioned their choice of hospital.

Haresh explained: “She had travelled by local train to provide tuition to her students on Tuesday. But she started feeling unwell after reaching. She then went to her parents’ place, which is close by, and complained of excruciating pain. We rushed her to a nearby hospital where she gave birth to a premature, stillborn child.”

“Such pain is a typical symptom of pre-term delivery,” said a senior doctor at the clinic where she was treated. “The baby was born dead.”

The Mehtas had told the court the foetus had been detected with heart defects that would make its life a struggle if it were allowed to be born.

“I can’t say I’m glad but I’m certainly relieved because my child has been spared a life of pain and we, a life of agony. God helped us,” Haresh said today.

He added that his wife was suffering from high blood pressure because of the stress of the past few weeks.

A paediatric cardiologist in Delhi, Vikas Kohli, said it was not unusual for a foetus with a severe structural and functional problem to develop heart failure and die in the womb. “The arteries were switched and the heart rate was lower than normal. In such cases, cardiac failure and foetal death is a possibility,” he said.

Deepika Deka, a foetal medicine specialist at AIIMS, Delhi, ruled out Niketa’s mental stress being a trigger for the foetal death.

Datar said: “I came to know from the media that Niketa had a miscarriage. Her husband or her family did not bother to inform me but took her to some nondescript nursing home that runs out of a floor in a residential building. I don’t understand the hurry.”

Niketa was registered for delivery at a hospital in Mumbai’s Vile Parle where Datar is a consultant obstetrician.

After the miscarriage, Haresh and two relatives arrived at a civic crematorium around 11.30pm and buried the foetus after a brief ritual.

“He was calm and asked me for a death certificate, which I said we could not give in case of a foetus,” said P. Solanki, who manages the crematorium. “Since it was a foetus, no post-mortem report was required, so we gave permission for burial.”

The Mehtas had moved court nearly four weeks ago when the foetus was 22 weeks old and sought permission for abortion, allowed only till the 20th week under Indian law. The couple asked the court for an amendment, extending the cutoff to the 26th week of pregnancy as in the UK and some other countries.

On August 4, the court dismissed the plea after a doctors’ panel said there were “least chances” of the child being born with a serious handicap.

Niketa today said she wanted to be left alone, PTI reported.