Gujarat Covid patient dies hours after hospital collects his sperm as per HC order.
After hearing a petition of his 29-year-old wife, who wishes to bear a child through Assisted Reproductive Technology (ART), on Tuesday, the High Court directed the hospital to preserve the sperm since the man was not in a condition to grant consent.
Hours after a private hospital in Vadodara collected sperm from a critical Covid patient — following a Gujarat High Court directive on his wife’s plea — the 32-year-old man breathed his last on Thursday. He had been battling bilateral pneumonia after getting Covid-19 three months ago.
After hearing a petition of his 29-year-old wife, who wishes to bear a child through Assisted Reproductive Technology (ART), on Tuesday, the High Court directed the hospital to preserve the sperm since the man was not in a condition to grant consent.
As per doctors, his chances of survival were slim, the plea had said.
She had approached the court after the hospital demanded a court order to collect his sperm for IVF.
Granting an urgent hearing to the woman, Justice Ashutosh J Shastri had directed the hospital to collect the man’s sperm as soon as possible and store it appropriately.
The man, who was on extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO), following hospitalisation on May 10 for Covid-19 related complications at Sterling Hospital, Vadodara, passed away early on Thursday, the hospital administration said.
Dr Mayur Dodhiya, nodal officer for Covid-19 at Sterling Hospital, told this newspaper that the man died of sepsis and bilateral pneumonia while on ECMO support.
The hospital handed over the body to the “inconsolable” family, sources said. The parents and the wife of the man petitioned the high court to grant them permission to proceed with ART for an in vitro fertilisation (IVF) procedure. The hospital, complying with the HC order, collected the sperm of the patient through Testicular Sperm Extraction method and preserved it at an IVF lab in the city on Wednesday.
Advocate Nilay Patel, representing the petitioners — wife, and parents of the patient — seeking urgent hearing on Tuesday, was directed before the court of Justice Ashutosh Shastri. Patel submitted that the treating doctor at the private hospital in Vadodara had conveyed to the family that the man “may not survive beyond 24 hours”. By late afternoon, the wife called up her lawyer to inform that she has “maximum three hours” before it becomes impossible to collect the sperm.
The petitioner had contended that the hospital’s oral refusal to the IVF procedure owing to the absence of written consent of the sperm donor was an action violative of the rights of the petitioner-wife as the patient as unconscious.
Considering the deteriorating condition of the man, the court directed the hospital to preserve the sperm.
