On Wednesday, a woman died after transfusion of wrong group of blood at Government run Keonjhar District Headquarters Hospital (DHH) at Keonjhar in Odisha, triggering tension in the area and dismissal of two employees.

Chief District Medical Officer (CDMO), Kabindra Prasad Sahu said as per instruction of the district Collector, staff Nurse Hemalata Mahant and Laboratory Technician Bharati Mahant were suspended from their jobs for gross negligence.

Family members and relatives of the woman and local residents, angry over the incident that took place on Tuesday night, staged a road blockade near the district headquarters hospital and demanded action against the guilty and adequate compensation.

On Tuesday afternoon, Hadabandhasahi in old town area resident a 45 year old woman Sukanti Nayak was admitted to the medicine ward of the hospital for treatment of kidney-related disease. Hospital sources said that doctors advised her one unit of blood.

And as per doctor advice, Birendra Nayak, the patient’s husband, went to fetch a unit of ‘O’ group blood from the blood bank in the hospital premises.  However, the laboratory technician at the blood bank allegedly handed over a packet of ‘A’ group blood, which was transfused to the woman by a staff nurse. The patient died after a short while on Tuesday night.

Subsequently it was found that wrong group of blood had been transfused without proper verification, the family members of the patient said. The authority of the hospital also admitted that a major mistake had certainly been committed.

Besides, a recommendation has also been made for action against a doctor for dereliction of duty.

Sahu said that a miscommunication at the blood bank had led to the unfortunate incident. Two requisitions with the same name had been received at the blood bank, one from the Medicine ward and other from the Gynecology.

The blood meant for the Gynecology patient was by mistake handed over to the relatives of Sukanti Nayak, who was admitted in the Medical ward.