Blood collection kit blasts during transfusion at Civil Hospital

Tribune News Service

Bathinda, May 25

A blood donor, who had come to donate blood for a cancer patient, was left bleeding as the blood-collection bag attached to his veins blasted at the Blood Bank in the Civil Hospital here on Saturday.

Anuj Lubana and his relatives had come to donate blood for a cancer patient who was an acquaintance. But when they reached the Civil Hospital, the staff at the Blood Bank allegedly refused for conducting blood transfusion citing the absence of staff members.

Lubana said, “After senior officials at the government hospital were informed about the situation, the staff at the Blood Bank agreed to conduct blood transfusion. But during the blood transfusion, the machine started making coarse sound and then the blood-containing kit attached to my veins got blasted and the entire blood spilled on the floor and machine. I have donated blood 26 times before, but I never faced such a bad experience.”

He said later owing to an emergency situation, they went to a private hospital in the city to get blood transfusion done. Lubana added, “Earlier, when I had come to the Civil Hospital to donate SDP blood units for an acquaintance who was a cancer patient admitted at a private hospital in the city. But I was told that there are adequate staff members at the Blood Bank. The staff at the hospital even asked us to visit a private hospital.”

Dr Inderdeep Singh, Blood Transfusion Officer, Blood Bank, Civil Hospital, said, “We have asked the engineer to come and identify the cause of the incident today. Either the blood transfusion machine might have developed a technical snag or there could be a defect in the kit.”

Dr Singh added, “Against the requirement of 10 lab technicians, we are running the affairs with four LTs now as three LTs have left the job in the past few months. We are grappling with an acute shortage of staff and we have written to the higher authorities demanding adequate staff to run the affairs smoothly in the unit, but nothing has been done by the latter till now.”