4th case raises concern over medical supplies
CHENNAI/TIRUCHY: A day after a PHC nurse at Uchipuli was suspended over gross negligence after a piece of the needle used for suturing got stuck inside a woman’s stomach, another incident was reported from a PHC in Nagapattinam on Friday where a woman who was given an injection for fever, was sent back with a needle in her body.
This is the fourth such incident between September - November 2019 in TN. Most of the cases took place at government hospitals or PHCs. This also raises a question on whether inferior quality of medical supplies are sent to hospitals.
On September 10, 2019, a newborn in Coimbatore had a broken vaccine needle stuck in his thigh for more than a fortnight which went unnoticed till the baby developed a swelling and it started bleeding. Two months later, in November, a piece of injection needle remained stuck in a man’s buttock in Chennai. On November 21, 2019, a needle broke and was left in the body of a young woman in Uchipuli while one of the nurses was suturing her post-delivery. On November 22, a syringe needle got stuck in a woman’s body after the doctor administered an injection for fever at a PHC in Nagapattinam.
When contacted, medical professionals and manufacturers of syringes say they have never encountered such cases. Dr Ranjith Veeramani Thangavelu, senior assistant surgeon, RGGGH, said, “It is very rare to see a syringe or a needle breaking while administering it on a patient. I have not witnessed it in my practice of more than 10 years.” When asked if the reason could be low quality equipment, a medical equipment manufacturer said, “We get several complaints of syringes being reused and not being disposed of carefully, but none of needles breaking.” He added syringes supplied to the Tamil Nadu Medical Services Corporation were from a reputed firm. When contacted, hospital authorities at the Sirkazhi government hospital said that syringes were procured from the Tamil Nadu Medical Services Corporation Limited and there was no question of poor quality.
TIRUCHY: Doctors at Government Tiruvarur Medical College Hospital are trying to remove a broken needle from the body of a 55-year-old woman, who was administered injection at a Primary Health Centre near Sirkazhi. This is the fourth instance of needle getting broken and lodged inside patients in the recent weeks.
Sources said K Parvathi (55), a resident of Easanya Street near Sirkazhi in Nagapattinam, had gone to the PHC in the neighbourhood with complaints of fever. The doctor checked her and prescribed a medicine that was to be injected, which was administered by a staff nurse on duty. But the needle broke and got lodged in her hip.
The next day, the spot where the injection was administered began hurting. But Parvathi reportedly thought it was because of the injection, and tried home remedies to reduce the pain. However, it only intensified as hours went on. Finally, her relatives took her to the Sirkazhi GH where the doctors took an X-ray and found the broken needle. They then referred Parvathi to Raja Muthiah Medical College Hospital in Chidambaram. But hailing from a poor family, she did not have money to pay for the treatment and refused to go there. In the meanwhile, the news about her plight went viral across the State, following which the doctors at Sirkazhi GH initiated steps to get her treated.
On Friday, Parvathi was taken to Government Tiruvarur Medical College Hospital where the efforts are on to remove the needle.