A woman in the southern Indian state of Kerala who suffered through years of excruciating pain because of a botched surgery says she is still waiting for the doctors responsible to be punished. The BBC's Imran Qureshi talks to her about her ongoing fight for justice.

KK Harshina, 31, says she lived with unbearable pain in her stomach for years, that is until a scan last year showed that a pair of forceps had been left inside her body during a surgery.

"I cannot describe the pain that I suffered for five years," Ms Harshina tells the BBC.

A mother of three, Ms Harshina underwent Caesarean operations (also known as C-section) for each of their births.

She got two of these at a government hospital in Kozhikode's Thamarassery town in 2012 and 2016. Her last surgery was a C-section at the Government Medical College Hospital in Kozhikode district in 2017 for the birth of her son.

It was only after this procedure that she started getting stomach pain, Ms Harshina says.

"When I complained, I was told by the doctors that it was because I had a third Caesarean operation," she says. "I was also told that many other women also had a similar complaint."

As the pain persisted, Ms Harshina consulted several doctors over the years. The process of trying to trace the source of the pain also took a mental and financial toll on her.

It was only in September 2022, when she had tests conducted for a urinary bladder infection, that she found out what the problem was - a scan showed there was a piece of metal inside.

The metal turned out to be a pair of forceps - 6.1cm long and 5 cm wide - used by doctors to clamp down on bleeding vessels during surgeries. She underwent another surgery to have the instrument removed.

Ms Harshina complained to the state health minister Veena George, which led to the appointment of a committee to investigate the matter. The Kozhikode Government Medical College Hospital also conducted an internal inquiry.

Both investigations led to a dead end

The Kozhikode Government Medical College Hospital said that none of its surgical equipment had gone missing and referred to the two surgeries Ms Harshina had undergone before coming to them. The health department's investigation also failed to fix responsibility.

A separate government probe was unable to trace the origins of the forceps - both the hospitals where Ms Harshina underwent surgeries did not have a record of the instrument.

The BBC reached out to Ms George for comment but is yet to receive a response.

Earlier this week, Ms Harshina went on a hunger strike outside the hospital, demanding that the state government take action against those responsible.

On Thursday, local Opposition leaders persuaded her to give up the hunger strike, saying it was impacting her health.

Ms Harshina called off her hunger strike but continues to sit in protest outside the hospital.

"I will sit on strike [until I gets justice]," she says. (BBC)

Update news