Hyderabad: Parents of three-month-old Druvan, who succumbed to sepsis at Niloufer Hospital, began protesting outside the hospital, where they allege the infection was acquired. Druvan, who was admitted to the hospital for fever, underwent a blood transfusion, where O positive blood was transfused into his body. When he was brought to the hospital a second time, his parents were asked to go elsewhere as they did not have blood.
When they took him to another diagnostic centre, they were told that Druvan’s blood group was B positive. This led to a major altercation between the parents and doctors at Niloufer Hospital on April 18. The infant was then put under emergency and critical care in the hospital for klebseilla sepsis. Doctors were brought in from the Nizam’s Institute of Medical Sciences to review the case.
Faced with immense pressure from the infant’s parents, the doctors explained in writing to the director of health and medical education on why they had transferred O positive blood, stating that blood grouping will not be established properly in neonates and infants of up to six months of age due to the poor expression of antigens and antibodies in the blood. While doctors stated there have been no reactions after the blood transfusion, Mahesh, the infant’s father said, “The infection was acquired from the hospital. I brought the infant here for treatment of fever. There was no infection at the time.”
