Will dismiss staff if proved guilty on dialysis-related deaths: CM

3 died while undergoing the procedure at Puducherry

V. Narayanasamy

Puducherry Chief Minister V. Narayanasamy on Saturday said he would take stern action if the probe found human error to be the cause of the death of three persons while undergoing dialysis at the Indira Gandhi Government Medical College Hospital and Research Institute.

Talking to reporters at Chennai, he said the government was swift in ordering a probe into the death of patients at the hospital.

The Puducherry health department had suspended a doctor, two nurses and three trainee technicians immediately after the incident.

“We will not hesitate to dismiss those responsible if the probe finds them guilty,” he said.

The government has announced a compensation of ₹5 lakh to the families of the victims. Meanwhile, further dialysis at the unit has been suspended and the patients have been referred to another hospital.

Power outage

On Thursday, three patients, including two women, who were undergoing haemodialysis, died after power was restored following an outage. “There was a power outage at 11 a.m. Only these three machines were running with power back-up. However, the patients developed complications after the power supply was resumed within 15 minutes of the outage,” Medical Superintendent (in charge) Bupathy A had said.

A medical officer said that after the power supply was restored, the patients started vomiting, their muscles became stiff and two patients died instantly, while one patient died in the ICU.

Negligence alleged

While the medical staff had stated that the machines had power back-up and patients collapsed after the power supply was resumed, their relatives alleged that the negligence of doctors was the reason for the deaths.