Surgery, which has a high success rate in TB management, was restarted at the Sewri TB hospital on April 22, after a gap of 10 months. Since then, four patients have undergone supra major surgeries, where doctors had to remove a lung.
After a shortage of surgeons, the Sewri tuberculosis (TB) hospital is now facing a problem of arranging blood for patients getting operated. Most of the times, the patients' relatives have to run to other centres, such as JJ hospital's blood bank, to arrange for the fluid.
Surgery, which has a high success rate in TB management, was restarted at the Sewri TB hospital on April 22, after a gap of 10 months. Since then, four patients have undergone supra major surgeries, where doctors had to remove a lung.
According to sources at the hospital, relatives of patients are running from the pillar to post to arrange for blood. dna spoke to the father of a patient, who has to undergo an operation on Friday. "My 16-year-old son is scheduled for a surgery this week. I have been asked by the hospital to arrange for at least four blood bags. I have already made two rounds of KEM hospital's blood bank with no luck," said Gulabchand Upadhyay, a rickshaw driver who lives in Thane.
He added that his son was referred for surgery in October, but they had to wait as the operation theatre was shut. "My elder son and daughter, too, are undergoing treatment for extreme drug-resistant and multi-drug resistant TB. I get paid on a daily basis. And now leaving all work, I have to run around to arrange blood for my younger son," said Upadhyay.
Before the surgeries were stopped, the hospital used to conduct 4-6 supra major surgeries in a month and 1,500-2,000 emergency surgeries in a year. Now, at least 35 patients are waiting for their turn for surgery at the hospital.
Confirming the issue, Dr Lalit Anande, who works in the thoracic surgery department of the hospital, said they have received complaints in this regard from the patients' relatives. "They told us how they were turned away at the KEM hospital. We then referred them to JJ hospital's blood bank," he said.
Meanwhile, Dr Avinash Supe, director of major civic hospitals in Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) and dean of the KEM hospital, said there was a general shortage of blood this season. "Since it is vacation time, there are few donors and almost no donation camps. We always face a shortage of blood this time, but we try our best," he said.
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
 "Sewri TB Hospital")
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
)
)
)
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}