While Congress has alleged the antidotes used to treat the victims of the hooch tragedy are in short supply in government hospitals,the doctors said they are not available in market and that alternatives are being used. The hospitals treating the victims of spurious liquor consumption over last six days have got antidotes that can be used after dialysis,which takes at least four hours. With limited number of dialysis machines available,the patients have to wait for long. To avoid this delay experts suggest use of a new antidote,fomepizole,which can be used prior to the dialysis. Congress Doctor Cell chairman Dr Vidyut Desai who along with three others visited the city hospitals on Friday has come down heavily on the administration for not being able to maintain the supply of fomepizole antidote. The non-availability of the antidote,he said,caused delay in the treatment of the victims leading to the death of many of them. Any quantity of methanol in excess of 50 mg in human blood is fatal and to bring down that level,dialysis is done on patients. But at these hospitals,there are either inadequate machines or insufficient number of technicians, he said adding that because of the limited number of technicians,the dialysis machines remain under-utilised and the waitlist keeps growing. Dr M H Makwana,the Superintendent,V S Hospital,said the antidote in question was a new agent and it was not available in the market as of now. However,he said this did not affect the line of treatment as after the dialysis the methane level was brought to nil in patients and they were being administered antidote to arrest the craving. The indifferent MPs of Ahmedabad The elected MPs from Ahmedabad,Harin Pathak and Dr Kirit Solanki,have not so far visited any of the areas impacted by the tragedy,nor have they gone to the hospitals where victims are being treated. All the affected areas come under the Ahmedabad East constituency. Pathak lives in the Ahmedabad West constituency and L G Hospital is just about one km away from his residence. However,the staff at L G Hospital confirmed that none of the MPs has so far visited the victims. Dr Kirit Solanki was earlier attached with V S Hospital in the department of surgery.
