Five infants taken seriously ill due to antibiotic reaction

Five infants have taken seriously ill due to lethal reaction after they were allegedly administered antibiotics at a government-run hospital here.

While one of the babies succumbed on Monday, doctors at Lok Nayak Jai Prakash Narayan Hospital have not attributed the death directly to the adverse reaction.

Doctors said one of the four remaining babies is still on ventilator, while the condition of the other three is stable and they are recuperating in the ICU.

The hospital authorities have now constituted a committee under the Nursing Superintendent to probe a lapse, if there is any, during the administration of drug.
 

All the five babies were admitted to the nursery and were being administered same antibiotics through injections, meant for treating severe infections, for the last five-six days.

"Same antibiotics were being administered to the other newborns and even adults undergoing treatment in various wards of the hospital but none of them suffered any reaction except for these five who showed signs of adverse reaction on Sunday.

"The babies turned blue and had trouble breathing. They were immediately shifted to the ICU where resuscitation was carried out. One of the babies, who was already very sick even before this reaction episode took place, died on Sunday.

"Three newborns have recovered while one baby is still on ventilator but is showing signs of improvement," said a senior doctor at the hospital.

When contacted, Dr J C Passey, medical superintendent of LNJP Hospital said the preliminary inquiry suggests that the antibiotics which are available in dry powered form were mixed with normal saline before injecting in small doses.

"As per the protocol, the leftover dose of the antibiotic is supposed to be discarded but in these cases probably the leftover part was administered with the next dose which probably led to this reaction," Passey said.

Passey, however, denied the death of a baby due to the reaction.

He further informed that a Committee has been set up led by Nursing Superintendent to see whether proper procedure was followed during the drug administration.

"The Committee will submit its report on Monday," Passey added.

Meanwhile, sources said Passey was called to the Health department where he briefed about the incident to the Private Secretary of the Health Minister Satyender Jain.