COVID-19: Karnataka's first plasma therapy patient dies

A 60-year-old critically ill patient, who was the first to receive convalescent plasma therapy in Karnataka, died here on Thursday, three days after he was administered the treatment.

P796, a resident of Anantpur in Andhra Pradesh, was admitted to Victoria Hospital after testing positive for COVID-19 on May 10. The patient had co-morbidities like severe pneumonia, respiratory distress, hypertension and diabetes mellitus. He died on Thursday after a cardiac arrest.

As a last resort, the doctors had administered plasma therapy on him on Monday. Unlike a Delhi patient whose condition improved tremendously with the therapy, the Karnataka case didn't recover.

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Dr Vishal Rao, the principal investigator of the clinical trial, told DH that it was an "absolutely wrong interpretation" to say it was a failure of plasma therapy.

Rao said the patient fit into the criteria of critically ill. According to the clinical trial approval given by the WHO, plasma therapy can be given to two categories: severe and critically ill patients.

"We know that 86% of patients who are critically ill don't come out of the condition. Only 14% on ventilators make it. The trial wants to address this 14%. Globally, trials are being done on moderately ill or severe patients, not critically ill," he explained.

"This patient with co-morbidities had not taken medication for six months. A clinical trial is not assessed based on the outcome in one patient," Rao said, adding that if only "good patients" are selected, then it is not a clinical trial but a marketing game.

"Since we are bound by a confidentiality agreement, we did not reveal that the plasma was administered on May 11," he said.

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Severe patients are those who are breathless and are in the ICU, but not on a ventilator. Critically ill are those who are on a ventilator. Currently, there are nine patients in ICU in the state but none who are eligible for plasma therapy.

"This patient was alright, but suddenly became breathless and started deteriorating. He was taken to the ICU but couldn't be maintained on oxygen, so had to be intubated. We were given a call if Victoria Hospital could try plasma therapy on him," Rao said.