One Indian state's health officials have suspended mass sterilizations at health camps after learning a doctor was using a bicycle pump to fill women's abdomens with air, the BBC reported.
Dr. Mahesh Chandra Rout, of Orissa state, said the bicycle pumps are a widely accepted sterilization tool where atmospheric air is pumped into the abdomen to create a space wide enough for a surgeon to use medical instruments.
Traditionally, an insufflator that pumps carbon-dioxide is used. But "in the absence of carbon dioxide insufflators, bicycle pumps are an affordable and convenient alternative," Rout, who used the pump on 56 women last Friday, told the BBC.
"The use of bicycle pumps to pump in air is a common practice not just here, but all over the state," the doctor said.
Outraged by news of Rout's unconventional - and potentially life-threatening - technique prompted Orissa's senior health official to order all sterilizations be performed at official medical centers.
"Doctors will be required to adhere to internationally accepted safety norms to prevent any possible infection," Arati Ahuja, the state's top health official, told the BBC.
Rout says he's never had any complications arise from using the bicycle pump, but gynecologists say using them can lead to death.
"For one, bubbles can form in the vein which could prove fatal," Dr. Pradeep Panigrahi told the BBC. "For another, there is no way to regulate the pumping in of air if a bicycle pump is used for the purpose."
In India, women are often encouraged to get sterilized as a way to address the nation's 1.2 billion population. Experts predict India's population will surpass that of China, the world's most populous country, by 2030, according to the BBC.
But a lack of quality health care in some areas has caused severe consequences, including the deaths of fifteen women after they were sterilized at a government-run health camp in November.
