Not ‘mosambi’ juice but poorly-preserved platelets transfused to patient, says Prayagraj DM; hospital to be demolished

Prayagraj (UP), October 26

The authorities here have ordered the demolition of a private hospital where a dengue patient died after being transfused with what the family claimed was sweet lime juice and not blood platelets.

Prayagraj District Magistrate Sanjay Kumar Khatri told PTI that report of the sample collected from the hospital revealed that platelets and not sweet lime juice was transfused to the patient.

He, however, charged Global Hospital with laxity in the transfusion process, saying the reports showed the platelets were stored in an improper way which might have led to clotting.

After a video claiming that sweet lime juice was transfused to the patient instead of platelets went viral on social media, the district administration swung into action and the hospital was sealed on October 20 on the direction of Uttar Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister Brajesh Pathak.

The patient, Pradeep Pandey, was shifted to another hospital, where he died after his condition deteriorated.

Meanwhile, the demolition notice from the Prayagraj Development Authority (PDA) dated October 19 to Malti Devi, owner of Global Hospital at Jhalwa in Dhoomanganj, stated the building was unauthorised and ordered that it be vacated by the morning of October 28.

According to it, show-cause notices were issued to the hospital owners earlier giving them chance to put forth their views about the building being unauthorised. Since no one came to the hearing, the demolition order was issued, the October 19 notice stated.

The Prayagraj district magistrate on Wednesday said that the probe report of the sample collected from Global Hospital has arrived.

“Nothing like sweet lime juice was transfused to the patients. It was blood platelets but stored in the wrong way which might have caused clotting. The hospital has been found lax in transfusing the platelets to the patient and action will be taken against it,” he said.

Earlier, the owner of the private hospital claimed that the platelets were brought from a different medical facility and the patient had a reaction after three units were transfused.

In a tweet, Deputy Chief Minister Brajesh Pathak had said, “Taking cognisance of the viral video at the hospital where a dengue patient was transfused with sweet lemon juice instead of platelets, on my directive the hospital was sealed and the platelet packets have been sent for testing.”