Transfusion death not first at Jaslok

The recent incident at Jaslok Hospital where Deepti Makhijani, 21, a blood cancer patient, was allegedly given a wrong blood transfusion at Jaslok Hospital, is not an isolated case.

According to a report prepared by the hospital authorities as part of investigations being carried out by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), a similar incident involving another patient had occurred in June 2011.

According to Makhijani's family, Deepti died on December 8, 2011, after the hospital staff used B-positive blood group instead of A-positive blood group for a transfusion in October. Doctors at the hospital cited a complete organ failure as the cause of her death. The Gamdevi police filed a first information report (FIR) against hospital authorities on December 14.

Last month, the FDA suspended the licence of Jaslok Hospital's blood bank for 15 days starting March 27.

During its investigations, the FDA collected documents including the report by Dr SK Mohanty about the alleged mishap. In his report, the doctor had stated that there was lack of supervision by the senior nurses during blood collection and transfusion. Dr Mohanty refused to comment on the case.

Mahkijani's father said, "I want action to be taken against the doctors, not only the nurses."