Hyderabad: The last thing you want to see in a bottle of saline is an insect floating around and fungus on the sides of the bottle. Yet this is what an anguished father saw in the bottle containing saline that was being administered to his critically-ill six-year-old daughter Sai Prabhalika at Gandhi Hospital.
Prabhalika was admitted to Gandhi Hospital on December 7 and was undergoing treatment for both fever and pneumonia. On Friday morning, her condition deteriorated and doctors put her on saline. The nurse administered the saline without checking.
Full batch of saline bottles kept aside as a precaution
As her condition was deteriorating, doctors were counselling her father Bikshapati and asking for his consent to put his daughter on ventilator support. That’s when Bhikshapati saw the fly in the saline bottle.
The bottle was immediately changed. An angry Bhikshapati then walked out of the ward with the saline bottle and got it photographed. Deputy superintendent Dr S.V. Masood said that all the bottles of the batch are being checked.
“The paediatricians have examined the patient and she is suffering from complications due to pneumonia. While administering the saline, negative pressure is given by putting a pin. The insect must have gone inside the bottle during that time. A live insect cannot survive in a saline bottle. We are going to thoroughly investigate and check our stocks again. Presently, the girl is stable and recovering,” Dr Masood said.
Telangana state health minister Dr C. Laxma Reddy has asked that the particular batch be completely set aside and not used till all inquiries have been completed. A committee of senior doctors has been formed to probe the matter.
State Commission for Protection of Child Rights member Achyut Rao has filed a complaint with the director and commissioner of the medical and health department and also with the superintendent of Gandhi Hospital. The family is from Mondrai village of Jangaon district and live in Uppal.
