Prayagraj hospital accused of giving patient lime juice instead of platelets gets demolition notice
The Global Hospital was illegally constructed and must be vacated by October 28, the civic authority said.
The Prayagraj Development Authority in Uttar Pradesh has issued a demolition notice to a hospital where a dengue patient died allegedly after being injected with sweet lime juice instead of platelets, ANI reported on Wednesday.
The civic authority issued the notice to the Global Hospital in the Jhalwa area of Prayagraj district. The authority claimed that the building was illegally constructed and directed the hospital to vacate the structure by October 28.
In the past year, municipal authorities in many states ruled by the Bharatiya Janata Party have resorted to demolishing properties of persons accused of crimes. Legal experts and human rights activists have frequently expressed concern about the usage of demolition as a punitive measure. Municipal authorities, meanwhile, have generally claimed that the demolitions were carried out solely due to alleged violations of construction norms.
In UP's Prayagraj, the development authority has issued demolition notice to the the hospital where a dengue patient died during treatment. Family of the deceased had alleged that the patient was given Mosambi juice in the drip instead of platelets. pic.twitter.com/T5a34EtIyY
— Piyush Rai (@Benarasiyaa) October 25, 2022
The Global Hospital was sealed on October 21 on the orders of Deputy Chief Minister Brajesh Pathak after the family of the patient, identified as Pradeep Pandey, alleged that he was administered sweet lime juice and not platelets. Pandey, a sand contractor, died on October 19.
Saurabh Mishra, the owner of the hospital, claimed that the platelets were brought from by the attendants of the patient.
“The attendants were given the slip to bring platelets,” he said. “They brought five units of platelets in the evening. When three units were used, there was a reaction on the patient, we stopped the transfusion. It [the platelets] belonged to the SRN Blood Bank. The hospital has no responsibility for it.”
A medical report on whether the platelet bag administered to Pandey contained fruit juice has not yet been made public, according to NDTV.
On October 21, the Uttar Pradesh Police arrested 10 members of a gang which allegedly sold fake blood platelets in Prayagraj.
According to the police, the gang duped patients by selling plasma as blood platelets. While both plasma and platelets are components of blood, they are used for different treatment purposes.