No expired polio drops given to baby: hospital

The Chinmaya Mission Hospital on Tuesday rejected IAS officer Pallavi Akurathi's accusation that banned and expired drug was administered to her 10-week-old baby even as the officer escalated the matter to senior officials in the Health Department.

The row began with Pallavi Akurathi, a joint secretary in the Department of Personnel and Administrative Reforms, filing a police complaint accusing a doctor and nurse at the hospital of criminal negligence.

The doctors said Pallavi "misjudged" them. Dr Dakshinamurthy, the resident medical officer, and Dr Suresh Kumar, the consultant paediatrician, said all the injectable and oral medicines given to the child were safe. "Medical inspectors visited our hospital and inspected the vaccines available with us. They, too, have declared them safe. We did not give any expired injection as claimed by the IAS officer," they said.

They said their pharmacy issued only three vaccines: Injection Easy Six, Injection Prevenar and Rotateq Oral. Since 'Injection Easy Six' contains injectable polio vaccine, oral polio vaccine (OPV) was not administered to the child, they said.

Stressing that no banned OPV was given to the child, they said the drops administered to the child was Rotateq and produced the bill.

But Pallavi said the nurse, Krishnamma, was lying. "I have seen that pink liquid, which is also the colour of OPV, being given to my child," she told DH. Incidentally, Rototeq is also pink.

Pallavi, meanwhile, has written to the principal secretary of the Department of Health and Family Welfare requesting to direct the drug controllers to give the status of the banned OPV in Karnataka.

"Through the enquiry team that visited me on 15-10-2018, I learnt that the CMH Indiranagar has been using the banned BioMed-made OPV till 1st Oct 2018. This fact, the enquiry team said, the hospital has orally admitted," the letter reads.

She said the team did not check the hospital's failure to maintain the documentation of the vial-wise and dose-wise beneficiary details of the banned OPV as well as the withdrawal procedure. "I think the assistant drug controller is supporting the hospital by not verifying the records properly."

Stating that she does not want any other mother to suffer her agony, the IAS officer sought details of the batches of banned OPV received in Karnataka and those declared contaminated. These include the number of vials withdrawn so far and the list of private hospitals from which the said OPV vials have been withdrawn and are yet to be withdrawn.