2 die after being given injections

Two patients died at Siddharth Hospital in Goregaon on Thursday following complications after being given injections either for malaria or leptospirosis.

Six others had chills and started vomiting after being given either of the two injections at the civic-run hospital. Maghu Renu Yadav, 20, of Goregaon was supposed to be discharged on Thursday afternoon as she had already recuperated from fever. “Before going to sleep the doctors injected her with some drug. She started getting chills,” her father Tirku Yadav, who was by her side when doctors were trying to save her, said.
Doctors tried to put her on intravenous fluids but could not locate her veins. She struggled for six hours during which her hands had swollen.

Sajida Ali Sheikh, 24, too died after vomiting and having chills. Both bodies have been sent to Cooper Hospital for post-mortem. The viscera have been sent to Kalina Laboratory for chemical testing, Dr Jairaj Thanekar, executive health officer of BMC, said.

Doctors said the anti-malarial injection, Artesunate, and the antibiotic for leptospirosis, Broadcel, might have caused the side-effects. “All the patients were given either of the two injections,” said an insider from the hospital.

But Thanekar said there was nothing wrong with the injections. “We believe the two patients died of leptospirosis,” he said.

Ayesha Rizvi, 2, who was shifted from Siddharth Hospital to the paediatric ward of Cooper Hospital was one of the survivors who had chills after being given an injection. She had also vomited, her mother Shabnam said. Her condition is stable now.