Close on the heels of the death of a dengue patient allegedly after being administered 'mosambi' (sweet lemon) juice instead of blood platelets at a private hospital in Uttar Pradesh's Prayagraj town, about 200 kilometres from here, the police busted a gang which sold fake blood platelets and arrested ten people in this regard in the same town.
Prayagraj police chief Shailesh Kumar Pandey told reporters that several pouches of fake blood platelets were recovered from the possession of the arrested members of the gang.
He said that the gang members, some of whom had worked at reputed diagnostic laboratories and hospitals in the town, used to procure blood plasma from blood banks. They, then, refilled the contents in separate pouches and sold the same as blood platelets at exorbitant prices to needy patients.
It was not clear how long the gang had been operating and where the fake blood platelets had been supplied.
The arrests came amid growing cases of dengue in different parts of the state. Patients suffering from dengue require transfusion of blood platelets as its count declines sharply in such patients.
The arrests also came after an incident of death of a dengue allegedly after he was given sweet lemon juice instead of blood platelets. The hospital was sealed and a probe was ordered.
''The condition of the patient deteriorated during the transfusion of the third unit....the third bag had mosambi juice instead of blood platelets....the doctors then referred him to another hospital where he died a little later,'' one of the family members had said.
UP health minister Brijesh Pathak said that a probe will be conducted into the matter and stern action will be taken against the hospital management if the allegations are found to be true.