ISSN: 1391 - 0531
Sunday, October 29, 2006
Vol. 41 - No 22
Plus

‘Our little baby has only one hand now’

Was it a case of inadequate facilities in the state health sector that led to the amputation of baby Sewmini’s hand, is the broader question that needs to be probed says Kumudini Hettiarachchi

The parents of baby Sewmini, just one year and two months, never in their worst imaginings thought that a visit to a hospital would tragically change their lives and that of their one and only little girl forever.

The events that would have a drastic impact on the trio began on September 30. “She had high fever, a bad cough and hathiya,” says her mother Ashoka Dayananda who has been by Sewmini since the ordeal began. They had taken medication from a private doctor in Galagedera, where their home is. But the medicine didn’t seem to work, so they admitted her to the Galagedera Hospital on September 30, where she was treated with medication injected through a canula.

“Although the fever subsided, the cough didn’t, and the staff at Galagedera told us to get an X-ray done at the Kandy Hospital,” says Ashoka, whose husband earns a living as a mason.

The family did as they were told and on October 6, dutifully sought treatment at Kandy, where they were told that the X-ray indicated their little one was coming in for pneumonia. “It was poya,” recalls the mother sadly. Treatment began at Kandy too, with the canula being changed every two days.

However, on October 12, the mother realized that something was wrong, because Sewmini was crying and the tip of the little finger of her left hand was slightly bluish. “Earlier when we told the nurses that the child was restless, the nurses said that it was not possible to keep changing the canula so many times,” says Ashoka, close to tears.

When the fingers began turning blue, the staff got activated and ultimately transferred Sewmini to the Lady Ridgeway Children’s Hospital in Colombo in the early hours of October 13. “Taken to the National Hospital (NHSL) on the 14th, she was brought back to LRH for the first operation which was to open up the arm,” says Ashoka explaining that still the hand shrivelled up, while husband U.G. Dayananda adds that even after the operation the hand looked like a crow’s claw, all black and disfigured. The same night (October 14) she was transferred to NHSL.

Subsequently, on October 19, the National Hospital requested Ashoka to sign the forms giving her consent to amputate the baby’s hand. “My husband didn’t want it done, but they told me that if the hand was not amputated other parts of her body would get affected and her life would be in danger,” she says attempting with difficulty to come to terms with this tragic turn of events.

Sewmini was finally brought back to LRH on October 21.

My little one thinks the hand is still there and attempts to wave it around and pull off the bandages, Ashoka adds as tears fill her eyes.

When contacted, NHSL’s Acting Director Dr. Rani Fernando said the child was transferred to the National Hospital from the Kandy General Hospital. The medication which should have gone into the vein had gone into the artery and the artery had thrombosed. The doctors attempted to increase the blood flow to the hand but failed and to save the child’s life the hand had to be amputated. “The amputation was a life-saving measure,” she said adding that the operation was performed by Prof. Mandika Wijeratne.

Father Dayananda

The Sunday Times understands that when the Kandy General Hospital staff realized the problem, they immediately contacted the Peradeniya Hospital, as Kandy does not have a vascular surgeon who is required to deal with such an emergency. Unfortunately, the Peradeniya vascular surgeon had been on leave. After contacting the National Hospital which has two vascular surgeons, the child had been transferred to the LRH, with the NHSL vascular surgeons attending to her.

While an inquiry is essential to check out what went wrong in Sewmini’s case, there is also an urgent need to look at the state health sector more carefully.

Is this a straightforward black and white issue or are there grey areas the Health Ministry needs to probe. Do hospitals which deal with life and death matters, have all the facilities required to perform their work? What of the staff? There is no doubt that the state health sector has a very well- trained workforce, but are there adequate numbers to handle the thousands of needy men, women and children who throng the state hospitals?

A closer and inward look not only with the motive of pointing fingers but also in an attempt to verify the truth may reveal some major shortcomings for which everyone, from the topmost post in the Health Ministry may have to say mea culpa, mea culpa, mea culpa.

How mishaps can occur

When small children are very sick, usually there are three ways that medication is given to them. The medication can be given orally, intra-muscular (injected to the muscles such as the upper arm or the buttocks) or intravenous (injected straight into a vein or through an infusion such as saline). Now intra-muscular is not commonly used, explained independent medical sources in Colombo, when contacted by The Sunday Times.

In the case of severe infection, bigger doses are required to act quickly, and antibiotics are given intravenous. Depending on the child and the severity of the infection, the dosage as well as the time period (six or eight hourly) would vary.

In small children normally a canula is fixed or the medication injected through a needle that is put into a vein and the danger, cautioned the doctor, is that both the vein and the artery are not only tiny but also located very close together.

Sometimes when one attempts to get into the vein, accidentally the needle may go into the artery. Usually the only way that medical personnel check whether they have got into a vein is to see whether blood flows back into the syringe, but even in an artery this could happen giving the misconception that the medication was flowing into the vein.

Puncturing of the artery does not create any major problems but unfortunately if strong medication such as penicillin and ampicillin get into an artery, it leads to thrombosis. Such strong medications would cause a chemical inflammation of the artery in turn leading to the artery sending blood clots in a bid to overcome the damage, he said.

Thereafter, of course, the clots firstly lessen and then block the blood supply creating an “ischaemic” condition, in the case of the child in question, in the hand.

The signs of this ischaemic condition are pain, the fingers and hand becoming cold and clammy, turning pale and having no pulse. Finally gangrene sets in and the limb becomes blue. The unfortunate incident of the little girl who was affected at the Kandy General Hospital is not the first such case in Sri Lanka. There have been about 10 before this, the doctor said.

In all these cases it was human error and not wilful negligence. Do you think anyone would intentionally do this kind of thing, it is obviously an accident, he said.

 

Sewmini’s family needs support

A two-member top-level team was due to visit the Kandy General Hospital on Friday, to hold an inquiry into the incident, The Sunday Times learns.

Whatever the findings of the inquiry, the need of the hour is to provide all possible care to Sewmini and support to her family to look after her.

The little girl has lost her left hand – that is the sad but hard reality. The authorities must put in place a long term plan to help Sewmini overcome both the physical and psychological trauma she will face hereafter and also get her fitted with an artificial limb.

 
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Copyright 2006 Wijeya Newspapers Ltd.Colombo. Sri Lanka.