The Kerala government, on Monday, January 24, ordered a probe into the death of Anannyah Kumari Alex, a 28-year-old trans woman, who was found dead in her apartment in Kochi in July last year. According to the police, Anannyah had died by suicide in July 2021, days after she alleged that she was a victim of gross medical negligence in a sex reasssignment surgery held at a hospital in Kochi.
Based on a complaint filed by Prijith PK that Anannyah’s suicide was caused by the hospital’s gross negligence and an investigation is needed in the regard, the state government has now ordered a probe into the issue. Members of the community had been alleging that Anannyah suffered severe complications from the sex reassignment surgery. Though she approached the same private hospital, they had allegedly failed to help her.
Kalamassery police in Ernakulam district had registered a case following her death. Anannyah, in an interview with The Cue, had spoken about the difficulties that she had been facing due to the surgery, which she alleged was not a success. She also said that she had been experiencing severe pain in the vaginal area and that she could not even stand for a long time or sit, due to the it.
“Even when I stand for a longer time, sneeze, laugh or even brush my teeth, I have severe discomforts. I have also been experiencing breathing difficulties. I had wished for a sex reassignment surgery that will give me a vagina like a woman’s, but my private part looks as if it has been cut ruthlessly with a knife. It cannot be called a vagina. It is a surgery which is conducted very neatly and cleanly in India and elsewhere. I’m standing before you as a victim of gross medical negligence,” she had said.
Anannyah was said to be Kerala’s first transgender radio jockey. She had also contested in the 2021 Assembly polls from the Vengara constituency in Malappuram district.
(Published in an arrangement with The News Minute.)
(At The Quint, we are answerable only to our audience. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member. Because the truth is worth it.)