Nurse death probe gaps miff minister

Mukul Sangma Shillong, Sept 9 : Meghalaya deputy chief minister in charge of health, Mukul Sangma, has returned the report of the departmental inquiry into the cause of death of a nurse of Shillong Civil Hospital to the directorate of health services, asking it to conduct a more detailed probe into the case. The 25-year-old nurse, Mary Lyngdoh, who was administered Tamiflu, a medicine for swine flu, actually suffered from typhoid and died on the morning of August 26 at the ICU of the civil hospital. On August 28, the health minister had ordered an administrative inquiry to be conducted by the directorate, the report of which was submitted on September 2. However, Sangma found that the report was incomplete, as the impact of mixing of two medicines —one for swine flu and the other for typhoid — was not explained in the report. The doctors in the civil hospital prescribed Tamiflu to Mary after she was admitted on August 1 as she along with the doctors were also treating the H1N1 virus-affected or suspected patients at the hospital. However, it was found that she was actually suffering from typhoid for which medicines were also administered. “We have to examine whether the effects of the use of both medicines by the nurse has anything to do with her death,” said Sangma. The doctors could not determine whether she was actually suffering from swine flu as the test results which had confirmed negative for HINI did not reach the hospital in time since the private courier company had sent the samples to Kohima instead of the laboratory in Calcutta for testing. Mary was admitted to the civil hospital’s isolation ward following high fever and symptoms of swine flu on August 18. The hospital authorities had sent the throat swab samples of the nurse to the courier company on August 19 to be dispatched to Calcutta for testing. On August 24, the test result from Calcutta confirmed negative for swine flu. However, a day before that, it was confirmed that the nurse was actually suffering from typhoid and she was also given medicine for the disease. Though the nurse was shifted to the ICU of the civil hospital on August 25, she died the next day. With the investigation report still incomprehensive, the state government is yet to fix any compensation for the family members of the victim. Sangma said the administrative inquiry report into the death of the nurse, which he had received, was incomplete. According to him, there was a need to go in-depth to find out the side effects of administering two drugs to the nurse who was actually suffering from typhoid.