January 9, 2009 2:54:07 am
The family of a seven-year-old cancer patient has alleged that the child contracted HIV infection while undergoing treatment at the Guru Tegh Bahadur (GTB) Hospital in the Capital for lung cancer.
According to hospital records,he was admitted on February 13,2007,and was discharged in October. During this period,he was given 12 units of blood which,as per the familys allegations,is the reason for his contracting the virus.
Deepaks family claimed that after being discharged,the boy was constantly unwell and also lost a lot of weight. When the family took him to a nearby hospital,the doctors advised an ELISA test on the child. The test results were positive,so we brought him back to GTB Hospital. But the hospital refuses to give us a hearing, said Tilak Ram,Deepaks father.
The hospital administration,meanwhile,has rubbished the allegations. We have been treating the child,who has been critically ill since February last year. Instead of giving us credit for the treatment,the family is making these false allegations. Before coming to GTB,the child had undergone treatment at other nursing homes. How can it be ascertained where the child got the infection from? We have the regional blood transfusion centre in our campus and we take extreme precautions while handling blood, said Dr P C Dikshit,Medical Superintendent at the GTB Hospital.
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