Donor Who Unknowingly Infected Pregnant Tamil Nadu Woman With HIV Dies After Suicide Bid

Days after a suicide bid, a teenager who unknowingly donated HIV-infected blood that was later transfused to a pregnant woman in Tamil Nadu, died in Madurai on Sunday.

Police said the 19-year-old was initially stable but had to be shifted to another hospital and died due to some complications during treatment.

On December 3, the woman visited the Sattur government hospital for antenatal checks where she was advised blood transfusion as she was anaemic. Four days after the procedure, it came to light that the blood transfused was HIV positive and was negligently labelled safe by the hospital's lab technicians.

Originally, the blood was donated by a teenager which was meant to be transfused to his relative. But, since it was not used, it was stored in the blood bank.

Immediately after the issue was brought to the notice of the authorities, three health workers of the blood bank at the government hospital in Sivakasi were placed under suspension for labelling the HIV positive blood as safe. On further inquiry, it was found the hospital authorities had found that the donor was affected by HIV as early as 2016 when he donated blood at a camp in Sattur.

But as the teenager was out of town when a counsellor phoned him to inform, he was asked to report to the hospital as early as possible. On Thursday, he consumed rat poison as his family struggled to come to terms with the news.

The Madras High Court had taken suo motu cognisance of the incident and directed the state government to file an action taken and status report by January 3.

When the vacation bench comprising Justice S Vaidyanathan and Justice PT Asha commenced proceedings, two advocates made a mention of the case. The advocates — George Williams and Krishnamoorthy — moved an urgent motion about the blood transfusion and sought the court to take suo motu cognisance of the issue. Williams submitted he would like to bring the matter to the notice of the court and was not willing to file any petition.

The bench then said it would like to take suo motu cognisance and issued notice to the health secretary seeking a status report on the incident and action taken against the errant officials by January 3.