The director of Peradeniya Teaching Hospital, Dr. Arjun Thilakaratne, has confirmed that the 21-year-old girl admitted to the hospital for a stomach ailment did not die due to a mistake in medication but instead passed away because of a rare occurrence known as Anaphylactic shock.
Dr. Thilakaratne emphasized that all reports related to the patient’s treatment have been reviewed and that no mistakes were made. He noted that the antibiotic ceftriaxone given to the patient is commonly used in hospitals throughout the country, and no similar incidents have been reported in the recent past.
Although the cause of death was due to the drug, the hospital director stated that the cause of death was allergic shock, which is rare.
Autopsy reports are still awaited, and the case was given an open verdict by the expert forensic doctor.
Specializing in Physiology, Prof. Udaya Ralapana explained that the patient, who was admitted with abdominal pain, vomiting and diarrhea, showed signs of bacterial infection, for which antibiotics were prescribed. The patient was administered the medicine twice since there were no syringes available to give the recommended dose at once, with the patient developing symptoms of allergy only after the second vaccine.
However, the exact cause of the severe allergy is still unknown.
