A seven-year-old girl who was suffering from fever died due to an overdose of paracetamol, it was revealed during an autopsy conducted by Gampola Hospital’s Coroner Nalin A. Mediwaka.
The deceased Rankothpedi Gedara Shamali Tharushi, who was a resident of Thamaravalliya, Uduwella in Udahenthenna, was studying in the Uduwella Primary School.
Her parents had given her medicine brought from the Kurunduwatta Hospital in Gampola twice.
It has been revealed that the child had been given a higher dose mentioned by the hospital pharmacy on the cover instead of the prescribed dose given by the doctor.
About 600 patients visit the hospital every day and it was reported that there is only one pharmacist.
Also, the hospital does not have necessary covers to put the medicines in and uses old bills or paper to wrap medicines.
Due to the large number of patients, many medicines like Panadol are kept wrapped in papers and given to the patients.
Though the dosage required for adults was already written inside the papers, the dose for the children will be written on the outside of the paper.
Accordingly, the parents of the seven-year-old child have given her the adult dosage mentioned inside the paper.
The child who developed a stomachache on the 22nd was brought to the Gampola Hospital in a critical condition.
Although the doctors had taken steps to refer the child to the intensive care unit, there were no beds available in Gampola, Peradeniya, Nawalapitiya or Kandy Hospitals. Arrangements were being made to transfer the child to the Ragama Hospital.
In the meantime, the child was anaesthetized with the consent of the father, and the child died at the Gampola Hospital at around 7:30 on the 22nd.
Accordingly, the child’s body was taken to the Kandy National Hospital on the 23rd for the post-mortem examination, where it was revealed that the child had died due to serious damage suffered to the liver caused by high Paracetamol dosage.
Judicial Medical Officer C.U. Wickramasinghe had sent samples obtained from the body of the deceased girl to a laboratory for further testing.
(Aruna)
