Bahawalpur hospital in spotlight for transfusing ‘boiled blood’ into patients

BAHAWALPUR: In a shocking revelation, a hospital in Bahawalpur was caught boiling blood before transfusing it into patients, ARY News reported Monday.

A video has surfaced showing the staff of Victoria Hospital boiling blood bag on a stove before the patients could be administered a transfusion.

It was learnt that the practice to boil blood before transfusion was being carried out under directives of senior doctors of the hospital.

The hospital staff, on the other hand, said that they boil blood to normalise its temperature as it remains in cold storage in the blood banks.

However, medical experts strongly discourage the practice of blood boiling, stating it could affect kidneys of patients if they were transfused boiled blood.

Blood transfusion is a routine medical practice all over the world but the 2017 case of two siblings contracting HIV in an Islamabad hospital after blood transfusion had triggered debate about “safe blood” in the country.

Health experts say that only safe blood gives healthy results.

Prof. Hassan Abbas Zaheer, in-charge of Safe Blood Transfusion Programme (SBTP) said in one of his interviews that 60 to 70 per cent of the around 3.5 million donations of blood across Pakistan every year are screened on substandard manual kits.