Lalita to Lalit: Beed constable discharged from Mumbai hospital

Lalita Salve had been admitted to St George’s hospital on May 22 and underwent genital reconstructive surgery.

Lalita Salve, a constable from Beed who underwent the first round of genital reconstructive surgery, was discharged on Tuesday.

Lalit Salve completing discharge formalities at St. George’s Hospital in Mumbai. (Anshuman Poyrekar/HT Photo)

Salve was admitted to St George’s hospital on May 22. He has been discharged from hospital, confirmed Dr Madhukar Gaikwad, medical superintendent at the hospital. “The final paper work is done.”

Salve will travel to Beed with his parents, who have been in the city since the day of the surgery.

Dr Rajat Kapoor, who performed the surgery, said: “We will call him for after six months so that we can create the full urethra,” he said.

The transformation

According to Salve’s petition, for the past 2 to 3 years, she was experiencing gender dysphoria, owing to which she felt the urge to undergo the surgery.

Salve’s chromosomal tests confirmed he is a man.

The incidence of partially developed genitals is 1 in 1000, said doctors.

Doctors used tissues around his genitals and thighs to create male genitalia, which will enable Salve to urinate while standing.

Doctors will transplant a beard in the following months using the technique of hair transplant .

Other surgeries will take three to six months, depending on how the tissues mature and heal.

Though Salve could have been discharged two days ago, doctors said the process got delayed because social workers at the hospital were arranging for funds to pay the bill. “As Salve was kept in a VIP room, a bill of around Rs12,000 needs to be paid. We wanted to perform the surgery for free,” Kapoor said.

Brought up as a woman since childhood, Salve took a genetic test — karyotyping — that established his gender identity as male. Salve had move Bombay high court in November 2017, seeking a month’s leave to undergo ‘gender reassignment surgery’. A panel of doctors was formed at Sir JJ hospital to evaluate the case. “Since the cop’s genitals resembled that of a female, the family may have got confused,” said a doctor, who was part of the panel.

During the first round of the three-hour surgery, performed on May 25, doctors at state-run St George’s Hospital initiated the process to elongate Salve’s urethra by creating a tissue conduit. It will take nearly a year and a half to complete all surgeries, said Dr Madhukar Gaikwad, medical superintendent at the hospital.

Later, a hair transplant procedure will be conducted to give Salve a moustache and a beard. “We will ask Salve what shape he likes, depending on which we will do the transplant,” Kapoor said.