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Man keeps doctors on edge
Express News Service
First Published : 23 May 2009 03:13:00 AM IST
Last Updated : 23 May 2009 11:59:38 AM IST
COIMBATORE: A suspected swine flu patient refused to get admitted at the Coimbatore Medical College Hospital (CMCH) here on Thursday, leaving the doctors perplexed. But he turned up at the hospital on Friday and gave his blood for testing.
According to sources, a 45-year-old businessman went on a tour to Singapore and Malaysia and returned to Coimbatore recently with viral fever, severe cold and throat pain.
He got admitted to a private hospital and was under treatment there. However, as a precaution, the doctors suggested him to go to the CMCH and check whether he was infected with swine flu.
Accordingly, he went to the CMCH and the doctors asked him to get admitted there as it was helpful for collecting blood samples for tests. But he wanted to be treated as an outpatient.
When the doctors turned down his request and insisted on his detention at the special ward, he “escaped”. The doctors got the jitters fearing that he ran the risk of spreading the virus, and initiated steps to trace him. They collected his address from the private hospital, where he was initially treated, and traced him to his house at Mettupalayam on the outskirts of the city.
“We brought him back to the hospital in the evening and gave him fever tablets,” CMCH dean Dr Kumaran. He said that the patient had given it in writing that he was not willing to get admitted and hence left the hospital.
A senior doctor at the CMCH said it was not necessary to quarantine him since there were no swine flu case was reported in Malaysia or Singapore. “If a person comes from either the US or Canada or Latin America with cold, fever and soar throat, he needs to be quarantined and observed,” the doctor added.
The doctors said they had verified with government officials who said “this patient need not be quarantined compulsorily, but only monitored”.
Express News Service
First Published : 23 May 2009 03:13:00 AM IST
Last Updated : 23 May 2009 11:59:38 AM IST
COIMBATORE: A suspected swine flu patient refused to get admitted at the Coimbatore Medical College Hospital (CMCH) here on Thursday, leaving the doctors perplexed. But he turned up at the hospital on Friday and gave his blood for testing.
According to sources, a 45-year-old businessman went on a tour to Singapore and Malaysia and returned to Coimbatore recently with viral fever, severe cold and throat pain.
He got admitted to a private hospital and was under treatment there. However, as a precaution, the doctors suggested him to go to the CMCH and check whether he was infected with swine flu.
Accordingly, he went to the CMCH and the doctors asked him to get admitted there as it was helpful for collecting blood samples for tests. But he wanted to be treated as an outpatient.
When the doctors turned down his request and insisted on his detention at the special ward, he “escaped”. The doctors got the jitters fearing that he ran the risk of spreading the virus, and initiated steps to trace him. They collected his address from the private hospital, where he was initially treated, and traced him to his house at Mettupalayam on the outskirts of the city.
“We brought him back to the hospital in the evening and gave him fever tablets,” CMCH dean Dr Kumaran. He said that the patient had given it in writing that he was not willing to get admitted and hence left the hospital.
A senior doctor at the CMCH said it was not necessary to quarantine him since there were no swine flu case was reported in Malaysia or Singapore. “If a person comes from either the US or Canada or Latin America with cold, fever and soar throat, he needs to be quarantined and observed,” the doctor added.
The doctors said they had verified with government officials who said “this patient need not be quarantined compulsorily, but only monitored”.
