Parents Claim 2-year-old Girl Contracted HIV After Blood Transfusion at Coimbatore Hospital

Coimbatore: Parents of a two-year-old girl child suffering from a heart ailment on Tuesday said she had contracted HIV after allegedly being given blood at the Medical College Hospital in Coimbatore.

The parents work in Tirupur district as daily wage labourers.

Vishwanathan, the girl's father, said the incident took place when the child was brought for a check-up at the hospital in July last year. Later this month, the child was admitted to the hospital after she had developed some complications, and during check up it was found that she was infected with HIV. Her twin brother tested negative.

“Our twins were born in Trichy hospital. Our daughter was underweight and was on incubator for 30 days. We shifted to Tirupur and she started facing heart issues. Doctors asked us to go to Coimbatore Government Hospital for treatment. This is where my daughter was transfused. In the middle of the blood transfusion, a doctor asked them to stop the process. When we enquired, the authorities said the blood belonged to an elderly person.”

However, the hospital’s dean, Ashokan, denied the charge, saying the baby might have been infected with the virus at some other hospital.

“There has been no mistake from our side. The baby was given treatment in many hospitals and this could have happened in some other hospital. We checked our records and we did not transfuse blood infected with HIV to the baby. The baby did not get the infection at our hospital,” Ashokan said.

The parents, however, maintained that their daughter was admitted to the same hospital four times.

An NGO has demanded a thorough CB-CID enquiry into the case and a strict action against those responsible for it.

The claim made by the parents comes months within months of two similar cases reported from Tamil Nadu.

In December after a 23-year-old pregnant woman contracted HIV via blood transfusion at a government hospital in Sivakasi, triggering state-wide outrage. The second incident came to light when a 27-year-old woman alleged that she was infected with HIV in April after she was treated at Kilpauk Medical College. Hospital authorities, however, denied her claims.