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Hospital goofs while administering blood (Pune Times, December 17, 1999) Rahul ChandawarkarIn a bizarre blood transfusion mix-up, a 20-year-old patient was administered a bottle of the wrong blood group at t he prestigious city-based Jehangir hospital. The youth, Kartik Vishwanathan, had to be rushed to the intensive care unit (ICU) of the hospital, where emergency treatment was administered by a team of doctors. The incident occurred on Wednesday afternoon when Kartik, who required O negative blood, was wrongly given B positive blood. When contacted, a leading city-based pathologist said the B positive blood cells would have been destroyed by the patient's immune system and this would have put excessive load on his kidneys. “The patient will have to be very careful in future because a similar accident could have a very violent reaction in his body,” he observed. Japdeep Gupta, chief executive officer of the Jehangir hospital and Dr. Rupali Basu, deputy medical superintendent, admitted to the goof-up but did not want to disclose the exact remedial steps taken on Kartik in the ICU. They said all efforts have been taken to pull him out of danger. Gupta claimed that such an incident had never happened at the Jehangir hospital before. “We do not disown the incident and are very seriously investigating it to identify the people who made the mistake,” he said. Dr. Basu said the doctors were “intensively” monitoring Kartik's condition. “We are happy to report that he is going well.” According to Dr. S S Deshpande, Kartik's physician, the young man was suffering from the collagen disease, which is a progressive disease involving the connective tissues, blood vessels and various organs of the body. He said patients suffering from this disease develop skin rashes, joint pains and high fever. The disease also affects the blood and the heart, he added. Asked to comment on the disciplinary action that would be taken against the staffers responsible for the mix-up. Gupta said, “Let's wait till the inquiry is over.” |