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Five months after the death of five women who underwent a C-section surgery at the Niloufer hospital in Hyderabad, an inquiry committee concluded that substandard drugs were the cause of the maternal deaths.
The committee held one Haseeb Pharmaceuticals responsible for supplying the substandard drugs.
“Substandard drugs have been supplied to all hospitals. This has led to adverse effect on patients in Niloufer because pregnant women have low immunity and C-sections require more IV fluids than other patients. Following our report, the drug suppliers have been changed. If it was the hospitals negligence, more deaths would have occurred but no more cases have been reported after the change,” Dr Deepraj Singh, a member of the enquiry committee, was quoted as saying.
However, the pharmaceutical company has denied that their drugs were substandard.
According to reports, the inquiry committee also declared that there was no negligence on the part of the hospital.
However, one of the findings, that states that the Drug Control Authority of Telangana did not submit its final report to the committee has raised eyebrows.
Speaking to TOI, Mujtaba Hasan Askari of Helping Hand Foundation, which filed the case in the SHRC, said, “we are not in agreement with the final inquiry report as the possible cause of death stated in the report is without any evidence from the Drug Control Authority , which according to the same report is pending? Then how come the cause of deaths can be attributed to poor quality of drugs."
Following the deaths in February, the Telangana government sacked superintendent Dr C Suresh Kumar, and resident medical officer Dr K Usha Rani.
The state government also ordered a probe by an IAS officer.
Health Minister C Lakshma Reddy announced the probe even as the hospital authorities shut down the operation theatres citing "periodic sanitation work".
All cases were also diverted to the Modern Government Maternity Hospital in Petlaburj for a short span.