Post Sattur case, girl tests HIV+ after transfusion

The girl’s parents on Tuesday claimed that their daughter tested HIV positive after she was transfused with blood at the Coimbatore Medical College and Hospital (CMCH). 

Born in Tiruchy Government Hospital in 2017, the girl weighed only 700 grams. She had to be kept under intensive care for 32 days before being handed over to the parents. Hailing from Tiruchy, the couple lives in Tirupur, where the man is employed in a power loom unit. 

In July last year, the child developed a respiratory problem and was taken to the Government Hospital. After a check-up, the doctors referred her to CMCH. There, the girl was diagnosed with a severe heart defect, given blood and subsequently discharged. However, she developed complications again and was taken to CMCH on 6 February this year. 

After a few tests, the doctors revealed that the child had HIV. Further tests also revealed that the parents did not have HIV. While blaming the hospital for the dreadful mix-up, the father told the media that, halfway through the transfusion, a doctor had burst inside the room and had removed the bottle containing blood meant for the little girl. 

“When I enquired, the doctor told me that it was meant for elderly persons and was given to the child by mistake. My daughter was discharged within three days, even though doctors initially claimed she needed to be under observation for longer,” he said. 

Though the CMCH denied the charge of HIV contraction through blood transfusion, the parents of a Kovai girl asked, if they were not HIV-positive, how could the child alone get the virus? 

“We have taken treatment only in CMCH. Only once my daughter was vaccinated at a Primary Health Centre in Tirupur.” claimed the child’s father, adding that the Race Course police, whom he approached, had refused to take his complaint. He sought action against the doctors. Meanwhile, refuting the charges, CMCH dean B Asokan said that as the baby was born underweight with a mere 700 grams, the parents have taken treatment in various hospitals when the baby could be contracted HIV. 

“When the child was brought to CMCH on August 11 last year, it was transfused with only packed red blood cells (RBC), which has no possibility of HIV infection,” he said. The dean also said that the donor and the transfused RBC’s were again tested and confirmed that they were free from HIV. “The child is now under ART treatment,” he said.