Youth given jab minus vaccine, nurse suspended

The Bihar government has suspended a nurse after a video of her administering Covid-19 shot to a youth without vaccine in the syringe went viral, officials said on Friday

The Bihar government has suspended a nurse after a video of her administering Covid-19 shot to a youth without vaccine in the syringe went viral, officials said on Friday.

The incident took place at Urdu Middle School temporary vaccination centre in Barhampur village of Saran district recently on June 21.

“Chanda Kumari, the auxiliary nursing midwife (ANM) who committed the lapse, has been placed under suspension and departmental proceedings will be initiated against her,” said Dr JP Sukumar, Saran civil surgeon.

He, however, ruled out any foul play.

According to Azhar Hussain, the youth who was given the jab, he noticed the nurse’s blunder the same evening in a video his friends shot of him on his cellphone.

Hussain’s friend Aman Khan, who shot the video, said it was a case of oversight on the part of the nurse, who was chatting while administering the shot to his friend. “I was shooting the video just to capture my friend’s reaction at the time of vaccination. We noticed in the evening while checking our (vaccination) status on the cellphone that the nurse did not load any vaccine in the syringe before administering the shot to my friend,” Khan claimed in the viral video.

The nurse has admitted her mistake, the Saran civil surgeon said. “There was a lot of rush at the vaccination session that day and many people had crowded around her. It was in the melee that she forgot to load the vaccine in the syringe, as claimed by the ANM in her show cause notice,” said Dr Sukumar.

The ANM was posted at Ekma Nagar panchayat but was on deputation to Chapra urban area for the vaccination drive, the civil surgeon added.

District immunisation officer Dr (Major) Ajay Kumar Sharma said the ANM was taken off the vaccination drive. The youth has also been contacted to be given his first dose of vaccine, he added.

“Using empty syringe in case of intramuscular injection, as in case of Covid-19 vaccination, is absolutely harmless if the air injected is in moderate quantity. In worst case, it may cause mild to moderate pain around the injected area. Air embolism is caused in case of intravenous injections when the volume of air injected is over 20-50 ml,” said Dr Umesh Bhadani, dean, AIIMS-Patna.

In another case of vaccination blunder, on June 16, a woman in her 60s was given a shot each of Covaxin and Covishied at an interval of around five minutes at a rural vaccination camp in Beldarichak village under Patna district.

Similar instances of vaccine mix-up have also been reported from Bihar’s Samastipur and Purnia districts.

One Ankit Sharma (32) claimed his provisional vaccination certificate, after the first jab, mentioned Covaxin even though he was administered Covishield at a rural centre in Samastipur on May 16.

Another Madan Lal Modi (50) claimed he was given Covaxin instead of Covishield in the second shot at a community health centre in Purnia on May 11. The medical officer in-charge Dr Ashok Kumar Singh had attributed the incident to “human error”.