In a city like Ahmedabad which is
lauded for cost-effective and quality healthcare services, Gujarat Cancer
Research Institute (GCRI) kept a 10-year-old leukaemia patient’s blood
transfusion on hold till his father managed to arrange for a replacement blood
donation at Civil Hospital.
Fortunately, an autorickshaw driver who
had taken them to the hospital came to the child’s rescue and made the
replacement donation.
As per rules, it is not mandatory for a
patient in need of blood to arrange for replacement blood donation and it is
unethical of hospitals to force the patient’s family to do so.
‘NO RELATIVE IN THE CITY’
Anuj Yagnik (name changed), a resident
of Ratlam in Madhya Pradesh was diagnosed with blood cancer a month ago. He has
been asked to undergo blood transfusion twice a month. He already underwent one
round of transfusion at GCRI last month.
However, when his father Ishwar Yagnik
reached the institute on Wednesday with the scheduled caste (SC) card which
entitles his son to free units of blood, he was asked to first go to Ahmedabad
Civil Hospital and donate blood.
WHAT THE LETTER SAYS
The letter addressed to Civil Hospital
by staff of GCRI’s room 48 states, “Please talk to this father of the patient
to give blood donation so that he can grant credit for his son.”
“I do not have relatives in this city.
I am the only person accompanying my ailing son and it was difficult for me to
donate a bottle of blood. So I pleaded with them to make an adjustment, but
they just refused to listen to me,” said Ishwar.
‘GCRI STAFF INSULTED US’
When his pleas fell on deaf years,
Ishwar approached Childline, begging them to intervene and save the life of his
son. Ashad Khan Pathan, a staff member at Childline accompanied Ishwar to the
hospital and urged the authorities to excuse the father from arranging for
replacement donation.
“We were given a letter asking us to
arrange for a replacement donation. We pleaded with the GCRI staff to
reconsider the decision. We told them that the child does not have relatives
here and his father was not in a position to donate his blood. But the staff
humiliated us and asked us to get out,” said Pathan.
WHERE WILL THE POOR GO?
Finally, Mahendra Kumar Pandey, a
24-year-old autorickshaw driver who works at Arvind Mills and also runs a tea
stall in Naroda, came to his rescue. He said, “Nothing is more important than
saving a life. I could not bear to see the father’s plight. He was helpless and
in tears. So I decided to donate blood. We consider doctors to be an avatar of
god. Where will people go if doctors become so heartless?” said Kumar.
The blood bank of GCRI, jointly managed
by the state government and Gujarat Cancer Society, collects blood from
voluntary and replacement donors.
REPLACEMENT DONATIONS
NOT COMPULSORY
M D Gajjar, joint director of Gujarat
State Council for Blood Transfusion, said, “Voluntary donors are the ones who
donate blood without any coercion while for replacement donation we request
relatives of patients to donate blood. However, hospitals cannot force the
patient’s family for replacement donation.”
Hematologists and officials at blood
banks said that blood donation was a booming business for hospitals.
“People donate blood without any
monetary benefit but the hospitals sell it for more than Rs 1,500 per unit. The
hospitals say that testing the blood to ensure it is safe is expensive and that
is the reason hospitals charge money. But compulsory blood donation is
unethical and inhuman,” said a doctor on condition of anonymity.
‘WILL APPROACH MEDICAL SUPERINTENDENT’
Echoing similar opinion, Maya Tripathi,
centre coordinator of Childline stated, “When replacement donation is not
compulsory to avail of blood transfusion, how can the staff force someone to
arrange for blood donation? Government hospitals are supposed to provide blood
to the poor for free. We are planning to approach the medical superintendent of
the hospital.”
Dr
Kirti Patel, dean of GCS Medical College, said that replacement blood donation
was not compulsory even for outstation patients. “The patient can be referred
to MP Shah Hospital for treatment, but I am surprised to hear that the
patient’s father was told that transfusion will be conducted only if he donated
blood. I need to check with the college staff.”
Experts say that since replacement
blood donors are believed to be associated with higher prevalence of
transfusion-transmission infection, most hospitals in the country are doing
away with the practice.
The website of National Aids Control
Organisation (NACO) states, “The blood banks and transfusion services should
aim to accept blood from only voluntary non-remunerated safe blood donors and
to do away with the high risk donors and blood sellers. They should gradually
phase out replacement donors.”
Civil Hospital’s Medical Superintendent
M M Prabhakar said, “I am quite surprised that GCRI sought replacement donation
because it has its own blood bank. Besides, no hospital can ask for it.”
Note: This story was later carried by international oncology website: Qmedicus: Oncology
No comments :
Post a Comment