Woman administered antibiotic concoction dies
The drug affected only female patients, of whom 14 were immediately shifted to Sion hospital and 15 to KEM hospital.
47-year-old Saira Shaikh died Tuesday night after spending an entire day in unconscious state on a ventilator. (source: Express photo)
A day after 28 patients suffered serious allergic reaction after being administered a concoction of two antibiotics at the civic-run Kurla Bhabha hospital, one of them, 47-year-old Saira Shaikh died Tuesday night after spending an entire day in unconscious state on a ventilator. Her body has been sent to J J Hospital for post-mortem examination.
According to sources from tertiary-care KEM hospital, where Shaikh was shifted along with 14 other female patients Monday night, she was admitted in the intensive care unit of the hospital in a critical condition soon after getting injected with the antibiotics.
On Monday night, two drugs called Ceftriaxone 1000 mg from Zee lab and Cefotaxime 1000 mg from Sanjivani Pharma were mixed together and administered to 28 female patients and four male patients in the medicine ward of Bhabha hospital. Half-an-hour after receiving the injections, patients complained of body pain, nausea, cold and vomiting.
The drug affected only female patients, of whom 14 were immediately shifted to Sion hospital and 15 to KEM hospital.
Samples of the injected drugs were sent to the state’s Food and Drug Administration (FDA) office on Tuesday for investigation. FDA’s joint commissioner of drugs, S T Patil, said, “The samples have been collected and it will take another 15 days for the lab to prepare a report. But since the antibiotics did not affect men, it indicates that the drugs were not wrong.”
Patil added that there could have been different procedures adopted for male and female wards, leading to different reactions.
While both the drugs were due to expire in 2016, Dr Saida Khan, NCP corporator and BMC’s health committee member, suspects there could have been something wrong with the syringes or some lapse at the hospital’s level that consequently led to such a reaction.
The 47-year-old deceased patient was a resident of Mahabaleshwar who was living at her relative’s place in Kurla since Ramzan. On Sunday, she was admitted in Bhabha hospital for treatment of fever and was due to get discharged by Tuesday. However, following the antibiotic reaction on Monday, her condition became critical.
Her relative Arif Shaikh said, “We were earlier planning to admit her in a private hospital for treatment. But since Bhabha hospital is right opposite our house, we thought we could admit her there. The family will regret this decision forever.”
A case has also been registered with the Kurla police station.
Shabana Rafique Shaikh (25), who was admitted in Kurla Bhabha hospital for treatment of typhoid, said, “We were put on IV bottle and since then, I feel better. The headache and vomiting continued until we were shifted to KEM.”
The remaining patients are expected to be discharged soon.
According to Sion hospital’s dean Dr Avinash Supe, all the patients have recovered and have shown no adverse symptoms so far.
tabassum.barnagarwala@expressindia.com
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