A LIFELINE THAT RURAL INDIA CANNOT DO WITHOUT -HINDU CBE 25.09.13
Twenty year
old Putul living in a village 70 kms from a district headquarters town in
Chattisgarh had been in labour for 2 days and a night. it was her first
pregnancy. After a tedious 150 min journey she reached a non-profit hospital,
deathly pale and in obvious shock from loss of blood due to a ruptured uterus.
A match for her blood group was not available to her and her brother was sent
70 kms far away to fetch blood. At the blood bank they insisted on replacement donation.
He could not donate his blood as he was anaemic. Then a tout directs him for
his 2400. he rushes back with it to the hospital only to find his sister
operated upon to remove her uterus and a dead baby. A single unit of blood is
not enough to save her and she dies the next morning.
There were
enough donors at the hospital, which could have been of help to Putul in this
life threatening situation. Their blood needed to be matched, tested for
infection and then give to her immediately, without the need for banking, a procedure
known as ' unbanked Directed Blood Transfusion (UDBT). This method of
transfusion due to unscrupulous practices by some commercial blood banks UDBT
became illegal and in a stroke, blood availability in emergencies in rural
areas became almost impossible.
Solutions:
there is no other way other than legalizing UDBT for use in emergency
situations after proper testing in certified institutions for physicians who
have had some initial training. Secondly replacement of blood by a relative of
the patient should not be made mandatory especially in emergencies.
there is need to ease infrastructure norms for
establishing new banks in smaller towns and community health centers. Finally
there is a great need to license several institutions in remote areas for UDBT
after proper training of staff.