The medical superintendent at AIIMS said that at that time Jyoti was found to be HIV positive and was advised to go for post-test counseling.
NEW DELHI: Seventeen-year-old Jyoti’s death in the Capital has sparked off a fear about contaminated blood in AIIMS. According to her brother Yogesh Chauhan, when she was admitted in AIIMS last year, she was given blood, which was HIV positive. “They killed her. The blood that they gave was infected with HIV,” he said.
Jyoti was admitted to AIIMS with dengue last year. During the course of her treatment, she was given 20 units of platelets since her platelet count was low. The medical superintendent at AIIMS, Shakti Gupta, said that at that time Jyoti was found to be HIV positive and was advised to go for post-test counseling as per the hospital protocol.
Once discharged, Jyoti began to prepare for her board exams and took two of her papers. When she again fell ill, Jyoti was brought in at AIIMS on March 11.
She was given oxygen, and kept in the ICU where she passed away on March 26. The hospital says the cause of the death was acute respiratory distress, sepsis and refractory shock. The respiratory infection could have been infectiously contracted due to HIV when the immune system was very low.
“The patient was HIV positive at the time of her initial hospitalisation in November 2006, even before platelet transfusion was given to her,” reads the hospital’s official release on the subject on Wednesday. However, relatives of the patient allege that the chances of Jyoti being HIV positive before 2006 are slim, as she has only had two transfusions. One when she was three and the other, at AIIMS.
“When she was discharged, we were not told anything about her being HIV positive, nor was anything mentioned in the discharge report either. If she had tested positive, why did they not treat her first time itself?” they question.
Amidst all the confusion, the fear pertaining to blood that is being administered to patients in hospitals has raised its ugly head again.
Screening of blood for diseases like Hepatitis and HIV, is mandatory in India under the national blood policy. While AIIMS maintains that all blood and blood products are tested for all infectious markers as per guidelines of the National Blood transfusion council, the common man now has doubts in mind.
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