Hyderabad: Doctor, 3 others held for selling diluted blood

Hyderabad: One doctor and three others were taken into custody on Saturday by Special Operations Team (SOT), Rachakonda, for allegedly selling diluted blood to patients. The owner of Venus Blood Bank in Malakpet, Mahesh Bhagwat said manager Sravan and technician Kumar were taken into custody and five packets of white blood cells and seven bottles of NS Sterile were seized from the blood bank.

As per to a report by TOI, they have been booked under 420 (cheating), 308 (attempt to commit culpable homicide if such act causes hurt to any person), 272 (adulteration of food or drink intended for sale), 273 (sale of noxious food or drink) of IPC based on the complaint given by Ram Reddy, a relative of a road accident victim, Narasimha Reddy, who was admitted to Global Hospital, Byramalguda near LB Nagar.

The family of the patient had approached Venus Blood Bank who were in need of two packets of blood, “As the patient was in need of blood, Global Hospital authorities asked the family to make necessary arrangements. They went to Venus Blood Bank and bought two packets of blood by paying Rs 3,000. But the hospital doctors found the blood in diluted form and refused to infuse it to the accident victim,” SOT (LB Nagar) inspector P Venkateshwarlu told.

The family of the victim reached to the Venus Blood Bank, technician Kumar dismissed the allegation and said ‘it is a common practice’. Shocked by the response, family lodged complaints.
“When we took Kumar into custody, he admitted to diluting the blood with NS Sterile,” police said.

Though police registered a case, doctors said that using sterile saline in blood was not harmful. Hari Kumar Nair, a senior herpetologist at Yashoda Hospital, said that there would be no harm if a patient is infused with blood mixed with sterile saline.