Mystery shrouds the death of a 70-year-old Nanded resident after he died in Jaslok hospital on Sunday. The deceased was admitted in the isolation ward on October 1 after he was diagonised with H1N1 (swine flu). The deceased (name withheld) was said to have been cured and hence shifted from the isolation ward to the main ICU, where he died on Sunday.
How did the patient allegedly die?
According to hospital sources, the deceased got the infamous acinetobacter infection in the trachea, which he got while he was admitted in the ICU, and died of septic shock. A patient can contract this infection during ICU admission, they added.
Experts say acinetobacter is a multi-drug resistant bacteria, not very common in corporate hospitals. It represents 10-15% of the total hospital-acquired infections and is generally seen in patients admitted in ICU for more than 10 days.
But hospital admin says...
The hospital administration, however, vehemently denied the claim and insisted that H1N1 was the reason for this death.
So then has BMC been informed?
When dna checked, BMC did not have any record of an H1N1 death nor had it received any communication from the hospital regarding the death. It is mandatory for all hospitals to inform BMC if there is any H1N1 death.
"We knew that the patient was critical and swine flu-positive, but we never got intimation from the hospital about it being a swine flu death," said Dr Mangala Gomare, head of the epidemiology department, BMC.
What does ICU doc say?
"He had got a full dose of oseltamivir, and only after being cured, he was transferred from the ground-floor isolation facility to the ICU on the 19th floor. The acinetobacter infection is seen in ICU patients and particularly affects those who are compromised. In this case too, the patient had undergone kidney transplant and was on immuno-suppressive drugs," said a doctor from the ICU.
Jaslok CEO disagrees?
Dr Tarang Gianchandani, CEO, Jaslok Hospital & Research Centre accepted that the patient had acquired acinetobacter infection, but underlined that the cause of death was swine flu. "The patient was on ventilator throughout his admission. He was on immuno-suppressive drugs and had had kidney transplant too. This made him prone to infections. He died of swine flu-initiated pneumonitis," said Gianchandani.
She added that the hospital follows international standards for infection control. "We have a robust infection control programme. Our infection control committee will analyse this case, just like every other."
