Elderly Man Wrongly Administered Rabies Injection, Family Stages Protest In Odisha’s Bhadrak

Bhadrak: The family of an elderly man has demanded action against a nurse of a CHC after she wrongly administered an anti-rabies injection instead of painkiller in Odisha’s Bhadrak district.

According to sources, 56-year-old Bijaya Biswal of Dakshinabada village had gone to the community health centre (CHC) at Bhandaripokhari in the district with the complaint of fever and severe body ache.

After checking Biswal, a doctor in the CHC prescribed him ‘Diclofenac’ injection to get relief from body ache. But a nurse applied an anti-rabies shot to him in the health facility.

After the patient and his family came to know about this, they enquired about it from the nurse. Realising her mistake, the nurse fled along with the prescription and Biswal was admitted in the CHC for further treatment.

Agitated by negligence on the part of the nurse, Biswal’s family demanded a probe into the incident and action against her. As palpable tension prevailed there, a team from Bhandaripokhari police station went to the hospital and started investigation.

The medical officer in-charge of the CHC Dr Kamalakanta Swain admitted the mistake but allayed fear of any side-effects. “An on-duty nurse wrongly administered ARV to the patient. ARV is a preventive vaccine and usually it does not have side-effects on the patients. But we will issue a show-cause notice to the nurse concerned,” he said.