Thalassaemia girl’s death in Rajkot triggers uproar

RAJKOT: The death of a 22-year-old thalassemia patient following a blood transfusion set off a major controversy in the Rajkot Civil Hospital on Tuesday with the family members of the deceased alleging that she developed complications due to unfiltered blood.
The hospital has ordered an inquiry by forming a five-member committee following the allegations.
Hospital sources said that the woman named Vidhi Pethva was admitted on Sunday noon and died on Monday morning. Talking to the media, her father Jitendra alleged, “Whenever the blood transfusion was done in the civil hospital here, she had complained of cold and some allergic reaction. On Sunday, she developed black spots on her body. The reason is that the hospital transfused unfiltered blood as it does not have an LR machine for filtration.”
The family also alleged that they had had to place multiple requests for transfusion for a week and the blood bank always asked them to arrange for blood first.
Dr. Radheshyam Trivedi, medical superintendent of the hospital told TOI: “She was a comorbid patient when admitted. She had breathlessness, swelling in the legs and abdominal distension. The patient was also diabetic and on insulin for the past nine months. We treated her by following the government protocol and there was no lapse from the hospital side.”
Dr Trivedi said the inquiry committee was formed following allegations of lapses by her family.
“The hospital has already placed the demand for an LR machine for blood filtration. But we are using an alternate filter treatment. However, in this case, there was no requirement of LR blood which is required in a very rare case,” he added.
The doctors’ panel will inquire into the entire treatment from the time she was admitted till she died, check if all the protocols were followed or not, how she was transfused blood, whether all other medical parameters like hypertension, diabetes etc were examined, the behavior of doctors and nursing staff, etc.
She was a regular patient of the hospital for blood transfusion. There are over 900 thalassemia patients enrolled with the Rajkot Civil Hospital for blood transfusion.