Experts from these teams to suggest discharge & follow up SOP
Shyam Sood
Rajouri, January 31: With an aim to frame standard operating procedure (SOP) for the discharge and further follow up procedure of patients from Badhal village-where seventeen people died due to unidentified illness between December 7 and January 19-a three member team of PGIMER Chandigarh is camping at Rajouri.
Another team from All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), New Delhi headed by its Director is scheduled to reach Rajouri on Saturday (February 1) in this connection.
The team from PGIMER Chandigarh include Dr Suresh Kumar (paediatrics), Dr Kapil Goyal (community medicine), and Dr Nitin Mahindra (medicine).
This team today met Badhal people in observation centers at Nursing College, Boys Model HSS and at GMC Rajouri and on Saturday will visit the Badhal area to collect more samples.
It is pertinent to mention here that at present 11 patients from Badhal area are under treatment in Associated Hospital GMC (AH GMC) Rajouri out of which 8 were to be discharged on January 27.
But an expert committee of GMC Rajouri chaired by Principal Prof. AS Bhatia postponed their discharge citing that they have not yet received the final diagnosis report from the Central Forensic Laboratories of the toxin consumed by these patients.
“As we are not sure about the exact nature of poisonous substances consumed by people of Badhal (including the deceased). We have started an empirical treatment based on statistical data of treatment and have started Atropine that proved to be a game changer and 100% recovery rate has been achieved” said Prof.(Dr) Bhatia.
“We decided to wait for the final report about the exact nature of poisonous substances consumed by these persons before they may be discharged by putting them on medicine which will protect them from the long effects of the toxic compound” said Prof (Dr) Bhatia. He added that it is a matter of concern whether there was any other poison along with organophosphorus poisoning (detected at GMC Rajouri) or was a poison against which Atropine was also effective. “To give proper treatment at the time of discharge of these patients, the expert committee decided to approach the higher authorities to constitute SOPs for discharge policy and follow up treatment for the safety of the discharged patients” said Prof. (Dr) Bhatia.
“These teams from PGIMER Chandigarh and AIIMS New Delhi after visiting Rajouri shall constitute the SOPs for the safety of these patients after the final report about the poisonous substance so that proper treatment can be given to the patients at the time of discharge,” said Principal GMC Rajouri.
