Kolkata, Jan 15 The initial post-mortem report of Mamoni Ruidas, the woman who died at a state-run medical college and hospital in West Midnapore district on January 10 after being allegedly administered with expired Ringer’s Lactate, has hinted towards multi-organ failure and septicemia being the preliminary reasons behind her death.
Sources aware of the development said the initial post-mortem report has also pointed out the existence of toxic body fluid within her body. This particular point has raised the question of whether besides saline the victim was also administered with oxytocin to keep the impact of the toxic body fluid under control.
Already two parallel probes are being conducted in the matter, the first by a committee formed by the state health department and the second by the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of the state police.
Last week five women had fallen sick at the said state-run medical college and hospital in West Midnapore district allegedly after being administered with expired Ringer’s lactate. One of the women died in the hospital.
The other four women were then kept under treatment at the critical care unit and intensive care units of the same hospital. Three of them had to be shifted to state-run S.S.K.M Medical College and Hospital in Kolkata following sharp deteriorations in their medical conditions.
The incident raised serious concerns, especially as the expired RL saline allegedly came from Paschim Banga Pharmaceutical Limited, a company earlier banned by the Karnataka government and later by the West Bengal government.
Following this, the state health department directed the medical superintendents-cum-vice principals of all medical colleges and hospitals and all the chief medical officers of the districts “to ensure total stoppage of the existing stock of Compound Sodium Lactate Injection (RL) supplied by Paschim Banga Pharmaceuticals Pvt. Ltd in his/her jurisdiction.
Later, the state government also directed the removal of stocks of all medicines supplied by the said company from all healthcare entities in the state.
This incident has revived concerns over similar cases in the state’s healthcare system.
Notably, in a recent case of financial irregularities at R.G. Kar Medical College and Hospital in Kolkata, its former principal, Sandip Ghosh, was accused of encouraging the use of expired and ineffective drugs on patients for personal financial gains.
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