48 NEW +VES, TOTAL 738

Four positive patients discharged from TN hospital by mistake

3 Traced, One Hailing From Delhi Missing

Bosco Dominique & Pushpa Narayan TNN

Chennai/Villupuram:09.04.2020

Four patients, including one hailing from Delhi, who were admitted to Villupuram Government General Hospital and tested positive for Covid-19 infection, were declared negative by mistake by the hospital staff and discharged on Tuesday morning. The hospital authorities realized the error by afternoon and sought the help of the Villipuram police to trace them. Police managed to trace three of the patients as they hailed from the district but could not trace one patient from Delhi. State health officials, however, denied any such incident.

State health secretary Beela Rajesh said, “All the patients in Villupuram who tested positive were under government watch. We did not lose track of them. There cannot be a clerical error of patients in isolation wards.” All the secondary contacts of the positive patients were kept in the government quarantine facility in Villupuram town. As soon as they tested positive, they were brought to the hospital, said another senior health officer, seeking anonymity.

Villupuram superintendent of police P Jayakumar told TOI that the hospital authorities approached police on Tuesday afternoon, stating that four Covid-19 patients were given discharge slips by mistake by the hospital staff in the morning. “We traced three and are trying to trace the fourth patient, who is from Delhi,” said the SP. No case has been registered against the Delhi man, he said .

73-yr-old discharged after full recovery

The SP said, “It may be an error on the part of the hospital staff.”

Villupuram deputy director (health and family welfare services) declined to comment.

On Wednesday, Puducherry police posted a message in aWhatsApp group, created by the department to share information with journalists, about a 30-year-old hotel management graduate hailing from Delhi ‘escaping’ after he tested positive for Covid-19 at Villupuram Government General Hospital.

In the meantime, there was celebration in the corridors of the Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital in Chennai when doctors and nurses bid farewell to a 73-year-old Chennai woman cured of Covid-19. The hospital, which recorded two deaths, celebrated as the woman, who was connected to ventilator a few days ago, pumped in with blood thinners, insulin and a cocktail of other drugs, walked out of the isolation unit. She was admitted to hospital with breathlessness on March 26 and tested positive the next day. “We have made a video of the celebration we had today. She was happy to go home. She thanked us all,” said hospital dean Dr Jayanthi. Her son and another patient who attended the same church are under treatment.

The state recorded 48 more cases of Covid-19 cases, including a Chennai-based neurosurgeon, taking the total number of cases in the state to 738. “We see hope. At least twenty people have been cured and discharged,” said Beela Rajesh.

The doctor’s health condition is stable though he is on ventilator support, doctors at the private hospital where he is undergoing treatment said. Officials from the Chennai corporation have isolated and taken samples of doctors and nurses who were working at his hospital on PH Road.