Kolhapur: Inquiry reveals no human error in repeated dose of antibiotic

KOLHAPUR: A day after five children, between four and 10 years, suffered convulsions after they were allegedly given repeat doses of antibiotics, the district health officials have found no human error in the incident.

Samples of the antibiotics, amoxicillin and clavulanic acid, used in Gadhinglaj sub-district hospital has been submitted to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for tests.

The children, who were admitted for several urinary system-related diseases, were given the antibiotics on Monday morning following which they suffered convulsions and were admitted in the emergency ward of Chhatrapati Pramila Raje civil hospital.

Dilip Ambole, health officer of sub-district hospital, said, “Our initial inquiry has found no human error. The staff is not at fault. We administer antibiotics on a regular basis after a patient is admitted or undergoes treatment or surgery. We have submitted the samples of the antibiotics to the drug inspector of FDA and we expect the results in a week or two.”

He said that all five children are out of danger now. “The children are fine now and will be discharged in a day or two. We carried several tests that confirm the children are normal now. There was no issue of overdose or repeated dose of antibiotics. All precautionary measures were immediately taken after the children reported convulsions,” Ambole said.

The health officer added that the antibiotics are administrated by following standard operative procedure (SOP). “The staff is well trained and all patients undergoing treatment are given the antibiotics twice a day so that the patients recover fast and are made resistant to infections,” he said.

The FDA will carry out various tests on the antibiotic samples submitted by the hospital and the report will be submitted to the district administration.

Meanwhile, district collector Daulat Desai took cognizance of the incident and summoned the health officials.

Desai is learnt to have asked the health officials to get the samples of antibiotics and other drugs tested to avoid similar incident in the future.