The detention of lab technician of Sultan Bazar Maternity Hospital has thrown light on malpractices at some of the city’s blood banks.
During the course of investigation technician K. Narender Prasad, who was nabbed after a week-long manhunt, revealed that he learnt the ‘tricks of the trade’ while working at a few of city’s blood banks before joining the hospital. The hospital’s equipment was commandeered for his profit-making, while contacts and acquaintances made during work with blood banks helped him find gullible customers. While being questioned, Prasad revealed that unused blood at the hospital would be procured and split into two packets, which would then be given new labels and batch numbers. The racket yielded maximum profits when Prasad and his partners in crime sold a packet of platelets falsely branded as ‘single donor’ platelets.
“Platelets from multiple blood packets were extracted and pooled, only to be sold as single donor platelets which costs around Rs.15,000 in the market,” said a police official privy to details of investigation.
Platelets
Single-donor platelets, separated from rest of the blood at the time of blood donation, is preferred as it is fresh and carry less risk of infections, informs Dr. Narasimhlu, Internal Medicine specialist at Gandhi Hospital. Blood platelets transfusion are done in cases of critical and often life-threatening illnesses including viral infections like dengue and during some therapies for cancer which cause destruction of patient’s blood components.
Police officials reveal that the quality of blood sold during the last 12 months may remain a mystery as cheating is the focus of investigations. Dilution reduced the quantity of components but questions remain about the quality of blood handled and sold by the fraudster which the Drug Control Administration may answer. DCA seized samples of Narender’s handiwork from the hospital for testing the results of which have not been made available. They add they would question Narender who is in police custody.
