Two years after his death, Puja’s husband was born again – as their son. That’s how 32-year-old Puja, a nurse in a Kolkata hospital, describes the successful posthumous artificial insemination with husband’s sperm (technically called AIH), the first such procedure in India.
The couple, who fell in love and married, had started infertility treatment in 2003 and decided to have a child through in-vitro fertilisation (IVF).
As a part of the procedure, her husband Rajib’s sperm was preserved in a sperm bank by infertility expert Dr Baidyanath Chakrabarty. But tragedy struck before the treatment was successful — Rajib died in 2006 of food poisoning. “He ate stale crabmeat and collapsed overnight. My world came crashing down,” Puja recalled. “He had never been ill, he was so healthy. I was inconsolable, life seemed a terrible burden.”
Over the next two years, Puja went in to a shell, struggling to cope. It’s on one such day that she realised that Rajib’s sperm samples remained in the bank and that she could still have his child.
READ MORE WITH MY BLOG : Two Years after His Departure, Puja’s Husband was Born Again – As Their Son