Death of four heart patients: Cause could be allergy, says Minister

Cabinet Spokesman and Health Minister Rajitha Senaratne said today that the Cardiologists had suspected the cause of death of four patients could be an allergic reaction to a dye given to patients during the surgery and stopped the usage of the dye.

While addressing media at the weekly Cabinet briefing at the Parliament Complex he said the hospital doctors had immediately stopped the usage of the dye and had started a special investigation into the incident,” the Minister said.

“A three member committee had been appointed to investigate the deaths and submit a report today under the directions of the Director of Health Services Dr. Palitha Mahipala,” he said.

Four patients who underwent heart surgery at the Colombo National Hospital died following heart surgeries on Monday.

“I informed the hospital director to hand over an investigation report as soon as possible. Most of the medicine were brought into the country in batches because they were imported after tenders. There are several batches that cause problems. Those batches were withdrawn immediately,” he said. (Chaturanga Pradeep)