Blood Transfusion Death: Odisha HRC Orders Rs 3 Lakh Compensation

Bhubaneswar: The Odisha Human Rights Commission (OHRC) on Saturday directed the state government to provide a compensation of Rs 3 lakh to a man whose wife had died after transfusion of wrong blood group at the Keonjhar district headquarters hospital in December 2016.

The Commission directed the Health Secretary to pay the compensation within two months.

Notably, Sukanti Nayak (45) of Hadabandha Sahi in the old town area of Keonjhar was admitted to the medicine ward of the hospital on December 13. The doctors there advised her a transfusion of one unit of blood. Later, her husband, Birendra Nayak, went to fetch a unit of ‘O’ group blood from the blood bank on the hospital premises.

However, the laboratory technician at the blood bank allegedly handed him over a packet of ‘A’ group blood which was administered to the woman by a staff nurse. The patient died after a while.

After an investigation into the incident, Chief District Medical Officer (CDMO), Kabindra Prasad Sahu said the errant laboratory technician, Bharati Mahanta, and a staff nurse, Hemangini Mahanta, were dismissed for gross negligence on the order of the district collector,.

Admitting that miscommunication at the blood bank had led to the unfortunate incident, the CDMO said that the two requisitions in the same name from the gynaecology and medicine wards had been received at the blood bank. “The blood meant for the patient in the gynaecology ward was by mistake handed over to the relatives of Sukanti Nayak admitted in the medicine ward,” she added.

Following the incident, the OHRC had suo motu registered a case.