The teenager whose HIV-infected blood passed on the virus to a pregnant woman died at the Rajaji Government Hospital in Madurai while undergoing treatment, The Hindu reported.
The 19-year-old was admitted on Wednesday after he tried to commit suicide by consuming rat poison. The hospital had initially said his condition was stable but complications later arose, and he died around 8 am on Sunday.
Dean (in-charge) of the hospital, S Shanmugasundaram, said the cause of death was blood loss, which is a common complication of poisoning. “He vomited blood early on Sunday, following which we administered one unit of blood and three units of fresh frozen plasma. Despite our best efforts, we could not save him,” he said.
The teen’s mother and police sources said guilt drove him to consume rat poison. “He was fine but as he saw news that his blood was transfused to a pregnant lady, he thought he should not live and consumed rat poison,” his mother said, according to the Hindustan Times.
The woman had contracted the virus after being transfused the blood donated by the teenager to a blood bank at a government hospital. The woman, who is eight months pregnant, had been told earlier this month that she needed a transfusion because she was anaemic.
She was given blood from the Sivakasi government hospital blood bank, but it later emerged that the 19-year-old donor was HIV-positive. When the woman’s blood was tested, it was found that she had gotten infected. A preliminary inquiry showed that staff at the blood bank had not screened the blood properly before sending it to the hospital where the woman was admitted.
Later tests found that she had also contracted Hepatitis B. She is currently undergoing the anti-retroviral therapy treatment, which includes drugs for Hepatitis B as well.
According to reports, the donor had been tested as HIV-positive in 2016 when he donated blood at a camp in Virudhunagar district’s Sattur town. However, he was out of town when the counsellor called him up to inform him. The counsellor left a message for him to report to the centre, but failed to pursue the case when he did not turn up.
The Tamil Nadu government has fired three staff members of the Sivakasi hospital and also formed an expert committee to investigate the matter.
The woman and her husband have filed a police complaint to seek action against the doctors, nurses and employees of the blood bank. The state government has said it will review the stocks in all blood banks in Tamil Nadu to ensure they are free of the virus.
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