On Thursday, a technical problem with a dialysis unit at the Old District Government Hospital led to the death of one person and three others developed serious complications.

The problem occurred during a session when 13 patients were halfway through the procedure. The deceased has been identified as Akash Badiger (16), a resident of Shahabad town. Guranna, Rajendra and Singodi are the patients who developed serious complications and were admitted to the Intensive Care Unit. They are recovering said the District Surgeon, Dr. Shivanand Surgali.

Dr. Surgali said that the hospital had 14 dialysis beds out of which 13 were available to patients, who are treated in 3 shifts free of cost. Though there was no problem with the morning session, the second session began at around 2 pm and the problem occurred between 3.30 and 4 PM. All of the 13 patients started coughing and vomiting and were struggling to breathe.

Akash died on the spot and three others were shifted immediately to the ICU and three more were given treatment. It is a very rare occurrence that all the patients developed a problem at the same time. The unit is run by BRS Health and Research Institute on a public-private partnership model and the Institute has to look after the system and take care of the treatments and the government pays them.

In the meantime, further treatments have been postponed till Friday and the patients are shifted to taluk hospitals.