The Hyderabad police arrested the director of Venus Hospital at LB Nagar area, for supplying adulterated blood, mixed with saline, to patients.
The police had raided the blood bank on Sunday and seized several samples. The collected samples had sent for laboratory tests.
The accused have been identified as hospital director Vakati Chakravarthy, (42), manager Chepuri Shravan, (29), and a technician named Bandi Prem Kumar, (24).
The accused confessed to the crime after they were taken into custody. This was not the only violation found at the blood bank.
The Red Blood Cell (RBC) units sold by the blood bank to a patient were reportedly broken (Haemolysed), which made it unfit for transfusion.
“Normally, when saline is mixed with Red Blood Cells (RBC), there are chances of haemolysis of RBCs. When haemolysed RBCs are transfused, a patient may develop fevers, chills and tachycardia,” Dr Sukesh Kumar, head of Blood Bank at Aware Gleneagles Global Hospitals said.
The patient’s family had bought two packets at Rs 3,000 each but doctors at the hospital refused to infuse it to the patient after they found that the blood was adulterated.
Following this, a police complaint was filed, and officials seized packets of the allegedly adulterated blood from the bank.
The police said that the adulterated samples had 60% blood and 40% saline.
An investigation is underway to ascertain how long the blood bank had been violating health safety and selling adulterated blood.