Alifiya Khan
Mid-Day.com
05/10/2010
AN eight-month-old girl’s death, which occurred a matter of hours after she received a polio vaccine injection, has resulted in an inquiry being ordered.
According to a complaint made by Wakad resident Santosh Dhende to officials of the Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC), his daughter Sanjana was administered her second dose of the triple polio vaccine and soon the child started showing signs of uneasiness.
The doctors allegedly dismissed the parents’ concerns, saying such things were routine during immunisation and they need not worry.
The Dhendes were asked to take their baby home, but soon after reaching their residence at Mhatoba Nagar in Wakad, Sanjana turned blue in the face and had to be rushed back to Thergaon municipal hospital, where she had been given the vaccine.
“The dose was given at 11.30 am and the child was brought back at 12.30 pm in a serious condition. We gave her life-saving injections and put her on oxygen support, and shifted her to YCM hospital in an ambulance. However, they lost her there at 2.15 pm,” said Dr Vishwanath Sawant, senior medical officer who is in-charge of the Thergaon hospital.
A day prior to the incident, the girl had been administered the hepatitis B vaccine. The girl’s parents could not be immediately traced as the hospital records did not mention the full address.