Amravati, May 12: In a shocking incident, an attendant at a government- run hospital here gave Phenyl phenolic cleaner to patients instead of a vitamin medication on Wednesday afterwhich some of the patients immediately fell ill and started vomitting.
There was complete chaos in Ward no. 6 of the District Women’s Hospital ,Amravati, when relatives of patients learnt that attendant Shobha Ingle had given phenolic cleaner to patients instead of vitamin medicine. All patients admitted in Ward no. 6 had delivered babies recently. Some women started vomiting after consuming the phenol cleaner.
It is duty of the nurse to administer medicine to patients, but the nurse told Ingle to give the medicine. The attendant gave around three spoons of phenyl to seven patients. The patients affected were Vaishali Wasule (28), Neeta Bawne (25), Priti Thorat (24), Ujwala Kadu (25), Deepali Rajankar (22), Kalpna Raut (22) and Ashwini Chawan (22).
Umesh Wasule, the husband of 28-year-old Vaishali, said that when Ingle gave her the medicine, she smelled it and alerted her that it smelt like phenolic cleaner. However, an adamant Ingle turned a deaf ear to her complaint and asked arrogantly why she would give phenolic cleaner. Vaishali had delivered twins on Tuesday and started vomiting after consuming the medicine, said Umesh.
Relatives of another patient said that the new born babies were deprived of their mother’s milk since the mothers had consumed phenolic cleaner and were told not to breast feed the babies after the incident.
Dr AR Salunkhe, in-charge medical superintendent of District Women’s Hospital, was out of town for a meeting. Dr PB Sadhawani said, “One nurse Pedam, who was on duty, told Ingle to distribute pro-vita dose to patients. Ingle did not distribute phenolic cleaner to patients. However, she had taken the pro-vita medicine in a phenolic cleaner bottle. Ingle was giving medicine but since it had been poured in a phenolic cleaner bottle, it smelled like phenyl.”
Dr Sadhawani said all patients were out of danger and are recuperating in hospital. The hospital administration has sealed the bottle used by Ingle, and after complete investigation, the hospital administration will comment on the issue, said Sadhawani.
When asked if phenolic cleaner was not administered to patients, why did they suffer vomiting, Sadhawani said that some people can’t even tolerate the pungent smell of phenolic cleaner so they vomited.
However, patients rejected the hospital’s explanation, and even showed some of the medicine given by Ingle, which had the typical pungent smell of phenolic cleaner.
–Agencies