HYDERABAD: A teary-eyed Devari Harikrishna was seething with rage. He was shocked at the negligence of government health officials at the Nampally Urban Primary Health Centre (UPHC) that resulted in his four-month-old son D Suryaswamy ending up in Niloufer hospital in critical condition.
“After my son was vaccinated, the staff gave us two tablets to be given in case he developed a fever. We gave him half of the tablet, but within a few hours after, he started having difficulty in breathing and was becoming drowsy. Though we rushed him to a private hospital at around midnight, the doctors did not tell us what the problem was. His condition was worsening,” said the aggrieved father.
On Thursday morning, someone told Harikrishna that the UPHC staff were asking people who got their children vaccinated there on Wednesday to take the kids to Niloufer for a checkup. He got the child discharged and rushed him to Niloufer hospital. “There too, the doctors continued to keep us in the dark,” he said.
Why was tramadol available in UPHC?
Tramadol is a last-resort potent pain killer prescribed in only cases of extreme pain. According to a senior pediatrician from Niloufer, the UPHC runs a specialty health clinic, which is why it must be in possession of tramadol, a drug that was declared last year as a psychotropic substance. The staff distributing tramadol, confusing it for paracetamol, also raises question of the UPHC’s accountability. As tramadol is listed under the NDPS act, its procurement, sale and prescription details have to be maintained.