AIIMS doc questions quality of hospital's life saving drugs

A department head of AIIMS has questioned the quality of life saving drugs available in the premier hospital and demanded a review of all those drugs procured, claiming the condition of her husband "deteriorated" after consuming one such medicine.
In her letter to the Medical Superintendent, Head of the Department of Anaesthesiology, Dr Chandralekha asked the hospital head to review stock of life saving drugs which are used in emergency situations quite often.
As per the letter, Dr Chandralekha's husband recently developed severe urticaria all over the body after consuming the some drugs from the hospital's store.
As his condition worsened he was prescribed heavy doses of anti-allergic drugs. The treatment went on for five days.

"Despite giving such heavy doses of all anti-allergic drugs, response to the treatment was not satisfactory, rather negligible," she said in her letter.
In view of this, the treatment was reviewed and it was decided to stop one of the tablets and change the brand and the new drug was purchased from the market," she said.

After that the condition of the patient started showing improvement.
"The problem could be detected just because we are living in the campus, having pool of doctors around us watching patient personally," Chandralekha said.
She said,"Samples are being sent to you duly signed by me, for review, and such spurious life saving drugs should be withdrawn and banned immediately."

"I am seriously concerned with the substandard life saving drugs," she said in her letter dated March 25.
According to the hospital sources, the samples have been sent for testing and one company has already been debarred.