An Indian woman who went into a private clinic to have her uterus surgically removed woke up from the procedure to find that both her kidneys had been stolen.

A couple of months ago, we featured the shocking story of an Indian woman who claimed that one of her kidneys had been stolen by her husband and sold for profit. As cynical as this may sound, she was lucky compared to another fellow Indian who had both her kidneys removed without her consent and now has to rely on daily dialysis to survive. Back in September, Sunita Devi, a woman from Bihar’s Muzaffarpur district went to a private clinic in Bariyarpur to have her uterus surgically removed. Only instead of her uterus, doctors there removed both her kidneys and then disappeared.

Photo: Olga Kononenko/Unsplash

It’s the kind of horror urban legend that’s been going around for decades. Someone goes into a clinic for a procedure only to have their organs harvested to be sold on the black market. Only this one is actually real, which only makes it more terrifying.

At the beginning of September, 38-year-old Sunita Devi was rushed to Sri Krishna Medical College and Hospital (SKMCH) in Muzaffarpur, because her condition had started deteriorating after her original operation to have her uterus removed. Doctors at SKMCH examined the woman and informed her family that both her kidneys had been removed and she required dialysis to survive.

Photo: Gujarat Samachar

“Doctors at SKMCH referred Sunita to Indira Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences, Patna for treatment. She was sent back to this hospital after treatment there. Since Sunita has no kidneys, if she does not have dialysis for even one day, then she could die,” Dr BS Jha, superintendent of SKMCH, told the India Times newspaper.

As for the culprits,  following a complaint filed by Devi’s family against Pawan Kumar, the owner of Subhakant Clinic, and Dr R K Singh, police started an investigation in September. They found that the clinic was not even registered and that the doctors’ qualifications appeared to be fake. Both suspects have been on the run since the incident, but according to the Hindustan Times one of them was recently apprehended.

The mother-of three is still in critical condition, relying on daily dialists sessions to survive. She will however require an organ transplant in order to survive. She has been asked to enroll for a kidney transplant, but there is already a long waiting list. Devi also appealed to the Indian Government to make the shady doctors pay for what they did to her.

“I appeal to the government to immediately arrest the accused doctor who removed my both kidneys. His kidneys should be given to me for transplant so that I could survive,” she said.