Ten days after a four-year-old boy B Sanjay died of swine-flu accentuated by multi-organ failure, a 47-year-old man died in Chennai late last night following symptoms of H1N1 virus that again turned fatal by other medical conditions.
Francis Xavier of neighbouring Kancheepuram district who was admitted to the Government General Hospital (GH) in Chennai on August 13 with symptoms of swine-flu, died after attempts to put him on the right treatment course met with unexpected turns.
The GH Dean, Dr Mohana Sundaram, told reporters in Chennai on Friday at a press conference that soon after Xavier was admitted with symptoms of the H1NI virus at the hospital, his throat swab was sent to the King Institute in Guindy for confirmation.
The patient was already then put on a course of ‘Tamilflu’ for two days to help him get over the attack, but Xavier suddenly “absconded” even before the swine-flu test results could come in, Dr Sundaram said.
The patient had got himself admitted to a private hospital in the city. On August 19, the GH Staff managed to trace and get Xavier re-admitted to the Government Hospital for treatment after getting him back from the private nursing home as the results showed that he tested positive for the disease, Dr Sundaram said.
{{/usCountry}}The patient had got himself admitted to a private hospital in the city. On August 19, the GH Staff managed to trace and get Xavier re-admitted to the Government Hospital for treatment after getting him back from the private nursing home as the results showed that he tested positive for the disease, Dr Sundaram said.
{{/usCountry}}After three days of “discontinuity” in ‘Tamiflu treatment’, Xavier was again put on it, but by then “pneumonia had set in added by acute respiratory problems,” Dr Sundaram said, adding, the patient died past midnight last night at the GH.
There was no need for the people to panic as continuous treatment would have saved the patient, he noted.