World | India
Aids patient faults hospital for botched blood transfusion
A 65-year-old man in West Bengal is battling Aids after allegedly contracting HIV from blood transfused at one of the state capital's top hospitals.
- IANS
- Published: 01:05 February 23, 2008
Kolkata: A 65-year-old man in West Bengal is battling Aids after allegedly contracting HIV from blood transfused at one of the state capital's top hospitals.
Ajoy Mukherjee of Barasat, North 24 Parganas district, insists he contracted the virus from Apollo Gleneagles Hospital during a blood transfusion procedure he had to undergo in connection with a bypass surgery in May 2006.
"I got the virus from there around May 2006. I want justice and punishment for the hospital authorities. I am 65 but it could have happened to a person who is 32," Mukherjee said yesterday from the bed of a nursing home where he is admitted now.
"At the time of the operation, we had gone to the hospital with donors we knew personally but they insisted on blood from the hospital blood bank," said Sabyasachi Mukherjee, the victim's son. "He was diagnosed with HIV in Vellore's Christian Medical College hospital last month after coming down with multiple complaints. We are devastated as we see him inching towards death like this," he said.
No formal complaint
When contacted, an Apollo Gleneagles spokesperson said: "We have not received any formal complaint from any quarter so far. We will comment or issue a statement only if there is any complaint lodged formally."
Mukherjee's family approached US-based India-born Aids researcher Kunal Saha, who spearheads India's largest patients' rights body, People for Better Treatment (PBT).
Saha said that available medical history indicated Mukherjee had contracted HIV during the bypass surgery. "We are also shocked to hear that the Apollo Gleneagles hospital had refused to use blood from known donors during his surgery," he said from Ohio.
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