Woman dies after ‘wrong-blood-group’ transfusion in hospital

Rourkela: A 25-year-old woman died after blood of the wrong group was allegedly administered to her at a hospital in Odisha’s Sundargarh district.

Sarojini Kaku, a resident of Budakata village in Kutra block, was admitted to the Rourkela Government Hospital (RGH) on Thursday afternoon. The patient was suffering from sickle cell anemia and she was under blood transfusion, an official said on Friday.

Family members alleged that the woman was administered with wrong blood, due to which she died.

“Her blood group is O positive, but she was given B positive,” a relative told reporters.

Kutra police station inspector BK Bihari said a case was registered and the body preserved for further investigation.

The RGH has constituted an inquiry committee to look into the issue and assured that action will be taken if anyone was found guilty.

RGH superintendent Jagdishchandra Behera denied any chances of negligence.

Behera said blood is administered only after cross-matching — a test done before transfusion to check whether the donor’s blood is compatible with the recipient’s blood.

“Had it been a case of the wrong blood group, then the patient would have died within 10-15 minutes,” he added.