Skip to main content

Expired Drugs consumed by Children

March 27, 2017 | Expert Insights

Is it a plot?

On 27 March 2017, some parents have alleged that their children were given expired injections at the state-run hospital. Photos, allegedly of injection vials at the Gandhi Hospital in Hyderabad have emerged, claiming to show that the medication had expired in 2016. Family members alleged the kids were injected with amoxicillin clavulanate and potassium clavulanate antibiotics from expired vials around 7.30 pm on Saturday to treat bacterial infections and fever.

Several children have reportedly fallen ill after the incident. While the number of children that fell, sick is unclear, all of them continue to receive treatment at the hospital.

While the doctor on duty, Naveen Singh, was issued a memo, staff nurses Shobha and Sunita were suspended and quizzed today by the external probe committee.

Earlier, on March 18, two personnel of the hospital were suspended for allegedly demanding money for use of a wheel-chair from a patient having severe immobility problem. The matter hogged limelight after patient, S Raju (in his 40s) had to move around in the hospital using a toy-vehicle as he was unable to shell out the alleged bribe amount of Rs 100 to Rs 200 for getting a wheel-chair.

Victim’s Quote

The parent of one of the children told, "My boy was fine when they gave him an injection in the morning. In the evening, they gave another one. Around 5-10 minutes after he was given the injection, his hands and legs began twisting and his eyes rolled up. I immediately rushed to the nurse, who asked me to take him to the doctor. After he gave some treatment, my child got slightly better. But he still had fever last night and is still sick."

In December, last year, a young girl's father had alleged that he found an 'insect' in a saline bottle that was given to her. The girl was suffering from a rare neurological disorder called neuronal ceroid lipofuscinosis and was on antibiotics and oxygen support.

According to doctors, the girl was being treated for recurrent infection and bouts of pneumonia. The girl's father alleged that her condition started deteriorating after being administered the 'contaminated' saline. She died 62 days after the incident.

The hospital said, the antibiotics are administered before giving it to the children to treat infections. Only the prescribed antibiotics supplied by the government are used here.

Analysis

As a reaction to an antibiotic, some children fell ill. It lasted just for five minutes. The doctors treated them immediately and advised everyone involved to stop taking that particular drug.

The hospital claims that they are showing the videos and photos of expired drugs which they immediately dispose and don’t keep it in their stock.

Did the outsiders bring the vials inside the hospital, as there was no government stamp on the bottle? Was there a breach in the supply chain?

Assessment

 

The hospital claims that the stock comes with a government stamp “Telangana government supply “on it but. The accusation seems like a plot as the vials that are shown by parents are not from the government stock. In that case the hospital should impose restrictions on the number of attendants with every patient and keep a check in-house as well. The immediate need is to ensure that there is trackability in every unit of drug that is dispensed to the patient.