MAYILADUTHURAI: A nurse has been suspended for reusing syringes while administering injection to patients at the intensive care unit at Mayiladuthurai General Hospital. The collector ordered her suspension after a patient's attendant filmed the nurse's act and the video went viral, sources said.
According to a sources, V Hariharan (30), a YouTuber from Akkur near Mayiladuthurai, took his mother Kalyani (58) to the general hospital on September 27 for treatment of chest pain. She was admitted to the ICU. Upon noticing a few nurses were reusing syringes while administering injections, Hariharan started recording the scenes on his mobile camera on September 30.
When Hariharan questioned one nurse over the act, she told him on camera that she was loading 5 ml of drug in the syringe and injecting 1 ml on patients. Hariharan then complained to the nursing superintendent on the reuse of syringes but no action was taken against the nurse.
Then, Hariharan shared the video on social media on Tuesday, sources said. "My mother told me that the nurses have been reusing syringes on patients. After confirming myself, I started recording it as an injection was given to my mother.
After I complained to the nursing superintendent, the other staff rebuked my mother for me filming it," Hariharan told TNIE. He also claimed more nurses were reusing syringes and the hospital personnel were rude. Further, Hariharan said he wrote to the chief medical officer at the hospital and the joint director of health services on Tuesday about the unsafe practice and the issue soon reached the collector.
Collector AP Mahabharathi said in a statement, "After confirming the incident after initial investigation, it has been ordered to suspend the nurse involved in the incident. The joint director of health services has been ordered to take departmental disciplinary action." Collector Mahabharathi urged nurses to refrain from such practices and warned departmental disciplinary action against them. Hariharan's mother was discharged on Tuesday.