Hospital Gives HIV Positive Blood To 28-Year-Old Pregnant Woman Just Before Child Birth

In a case of shocking medical negligence, a 28-year-old pregnant woman was given HIV-positive blood just hours before her delivery. According to hospital sources cited by a media report, the newborn and the mother are now at high risk of getting the infection.

The woman, a resident of Nalanda in the Indian state of Bihar, underwent a cesarean section in a private hospital on Nov. 5. She was given one unit of blood before undergoing the surgery, The Times Of India reported, quoting health department sources. She delivered a baby girl hours later.

However, hospital authorities shockingly found that the unit of blood was donated by an HIV-positive man. The man and his 30-year-old wife have been undergoing treatment for a decade at the hospital where he donated blood.

Authorities said he donated the blood on Nov. 3 as a replacement for the unit for his wife, who was also pregnant and needed blood transfusion for delivery on the same day.

The man returned to the hospital's ART center on Nov. 13 once again for necessary medication. That's when the details of the blood donation came out. On realizing the grave mistake, the hospital staff immediately alerted higher officials, who realized that the blood had already been transfused to the 28-year-old woman.

Though the man was screened before donating the blood, including for HIV, it came back negative. "His sample was tested negative. Probably infection might have decreased after continuous treatment due to which it could not get detected in test," Nalanda civil surgeon Dr. Sunil Kumar told The Times Of India.

Dr. Kumar said the man didn’t tell anyone about his infection while donating the blood. "His wife was pregnant for the third time. Probably out of fear that the C-section may not take place for lack of blood, he hid the fact that he was HIV positive and silently donated the blood at the bank inside the hospital for getting a unit of another blood group for his wife, " he added.

The authorities managed to trace the donatee and the child. Their blood samples were collected and sent for further testing. According to the officials, the woman is, in all probability, infected by now. "We will have to see whether her child is safe or not," the doctor added.

Though the technicians in the hospital claimed they were not responsible for the mistake, as it was entirely the fault of the donor, the hospital is looking into whether there were lapses in the testing procedure, reported Navbharat Times (translation).

The government has formed a three-member committee and an investigation is on, the report added.