75-yr-old Bikaner woman makes rarerecovery after wrong blood transfusion

Jaipur: A 75-year-old woman, who was administered a wrong blood type at PBM Hospital in Bikaner last Dec, has survived, an outcome doctors described as rare given the high fatality risk associated with incompatible blood.Bhawari Devi, a patient with A+ positive blood was admitted to PBM Hospital on Dec 16 with breathing difficulties and was transfused with B+ blood.
Her family detected the mistake when her condition worsened rapidly soon after. Despite the potentially fatal error, she survived after 30 days of treatment and is leading a healthy life, doctors said."It was sheer negligence on the hospital's part that led to the incident," said Govind Kumar, Bhawari Devi's grandson, who first noticed her condition and alerted the hospital staff, to TOI on Monday. "Thankfully, she is doing fine now and is back to her daily routine without any major health issues," he said.Doctors said the patient developed signs consistent with a hemolytic transfusion reaction, a severe and potentially fatal complication in which the recipient's immune system attacks and destroys transfused red blood cells. The hospital staff stopped the transfusion as soon as the reaction was suspected and began emergency management aimed at preventing organ damage and shock.