While on dialysis in the hospital on May 29, 18 patients with kidney failure had anaphylactic shock and six of them succumbed to the shock on the same day.
Informed the incident, the Ministry of Health sent a mission team led by Luong Ngoc Khue, head of the health ministry’s Medical Examination and Treatment Department to probe the incident.
At present, 11 patients in the incident are transferred to Bach Mai Hospital in Hanoi for further treatment. Director of the General Hospital in Hoa Binh Province Truong Quy Duong said that 18 patients arrived at the hospital for dialysis treatment as scheduled yet they had the shock after 30 minutes later; accordingly, medical workers stopped dialysis treatment and provided intensive treatment; however, at 5PM six of them died.
Director Duong said that currently, causes of the incident has not been verified yet. The hospital has asked for assistance from Hanoi-based Bach Mai Hospital which advised not to transfer patients for a long distance while they are in shock so the central hospital instructed their colleagues how to treat patients with anaphylactic shock in Hoa Binh Hospital yesterday.
All fluids for transfusion and drugs in the incident was kept for investigation. Police were quick to come to the hospital to liaise with the hospital managers for verifying the incident’s cause.
Deputy Prime Minister Vu Duc Dam arrived in the General Hospital in Hoa BInh to visit and offered condolences to relatives of patients in the incident. He asked the Ministry of Health, the Department of Health in Hoa Binh Province and Bach Mai Hospital mobilized all resources to treat these patients.
The Ministry of Health asked the General Hospital in Hoa Binh to stop dialysis treatment and set up a scientific council to verify the cause of the incident and issue penalty on team or individual who had mistakenly committed wrongdoing.
More than 100 people with kidney failure usually receiving dialysis in the General Hospital in Hoa Binh Province were transferred to Hanoi for continued treatment.
After the incident, police seized all machines, equipment and medications of the Renal Ward of the General Hospital in Hoa Binh Province. The hospital stopped carrying out the dialysis to wait for conclusion. Province administrators gave VND5 million and hospital managers gave VND10 million to each relative of dead patients.
