JOIN USIn what could be a case of serious medical negligence, parents of a 3-year-old boy have claimed that their child contracted HIV infection after blood transfusion at the Guwahati Medical College and Hospital (GMCH).
The incident came to light on Tuesday after the medical college authorities admitted that the child, who underwent a plastic surgery for burn injuries at GMCH, might have been transfused contaminated blood having HIV virus.
The state-run GMCH is the most-equipped government medical facility in North-East India. The couple claimed that the boy was given multiple blood transfusions during several surgeries last year to treat his burn injuries.
“Both me and my wife are HIV-negative. So how can the boy get HIV? Last year, we got him admitted to the hospital where he was given blood for some operations. We got blood from the GMCH blood bank only,” the parents told reporters at the medical college premises on Tuesday.
“We came to know about the HIV infection on March 30 during routine blood tests at the GMCH. However, doctors treating him advised us not to tell this to anyone. So we kept silent. They assured us of free treatment for the boy but nothing was done,” the mother said.
The authorities at the medical college have been in a state of tizzy ever since the case came to light.
“We have formed a 5-member committee to look into all aspects of the boy’s treatment and will try to find out if there was any lacuna on GMCH’s part,” GMCH superintendent A K Bezbaruah said.
The boy was admitted in the GMCH on April 15 last year with 40% burn injuries. About a dozen surgeries were done on him. He was discharged on October 3 last year. After the child started showing symptoms very proximate to AIDS, he was re-admitted on March 29 last. Since then the boy has been on Anti-Retroviral Therapy.
The case has raised alarm across the state and rekindled the horrific memories of 2013 when 4 people tested HIV-positive after blood transfusion at a government hospital in the state.