A patient died in intensive care unit when electricity went out in Andijan

36-year-old Shuhratbek Abdukakhhorov was brought to the intensive care unit on November 9 due to injuries he received as a result of his legs falling into the combine harvester.

After first aid, he was left in the intensive care unit. The next day, November 10, around 21:00, the patient died after the anesthesia and procedure to recover the foot.

During the procedure, the power was turned off and oxygen was administered using a hand-operated device. Relatives of the deceased say that the cause of death was power outage.

The father of the deceased, Rafikjon Abdukakhorov, said that his child was in a very good condition before anesthesia that day.

“His situation was very good. When I asked if there was any pain, he answered that there was no pain. He said that doctors stitched his legs.
 
I went to the doctor, and he said: “He is fine, don’t worry, we’ll recover his leg today, and take him to the ward tomorrow”. We stayed until the evening. My son said: “Go home, I am fine”. After we left, they gave him anesthesia again without asking us. The child could not afford it,” Rafikjon Abdukahhorov said. 

The brother of the deceased, Ikromjon, was in the hospital when the death occurred.

“I stayed in front of my brother. The traumatologists said that he had a cast on his right leg. They said that if they don’t anesthetize, the pain will be strong and he won’t be able to bear it.

After the operation, I helped the nurses to bring in a new oxygen tank (the old one had run out), and after 5 minutes of connecting the new tank, the light went off. For this reason, they gave artificial air with the help of manual apparatus. There was no electricity for 10 minutes. When it was turned on, I came back, but they said that my brother had passed away.

A good person was killed in 10-15 minutes. Before anesthesia, my brother’s condition was very good,” Ikromjon Abdukakhorov, the brother of the deceased, said. 

Doctors rejected these objections. Anesthesiologist Khotamjon Nazarov said that all measures were taken on time and in accordance with medical instructions. When the lights went out in the hospital, the current from the second line was used. The anesthesiologist said that the cause of death could be either fat embolism or thromboembolism.

“The traumatologist said that we need to recover the patient’s leg. The patient’s pulse pressure was stable, he was conscious, he said that he talked to his family members.

[…] The operation started around 21:00. The patient fell asleep under the influence of anesthesia. At that time, his leg was recovered, after that he laid down well for about 10 minutes. I did not like the patient's condition when he started to regain consciousness. Saturation, blood pressure was normal. Suddenly, in our opinion, there was a thrombosis, due to which the patient’s facial structure changed, blisters and bluish tints appeared on his body.

Suspecting thromboembolism, we immediately switched to intubation anesthesia, took the patient to the apparatus. 10 minutes after connecting to the device, the patient’s blood pressure dropped and the pupil dilated. We resuscitated for 25 minutes. All measures were taken, he was transferred to vasopressors, adrenaline, defibrillation, connected to oxygen. At 21:50, an irreversible process began and biological death was observed.

Our first guess is fat embolism. The second is thromboembolism. In order to prevent such situations, we will hold a conference, at the conference it was decided to put the protruding part of the leg back in its place.

The case was submitted to expertise. According to the results, a conclusion will be given. In fact, the electricity went out. But we used manual breathing apparatus. Since there were two lines, the power did not go off for a long time, not more than 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, we have a secondary generator. The first priority is the patient. The light bulb in the room can be turned on even when the light is off. It is true that power outages can affect our activities in some ways, but I do not consider this to be the cause of death. Because all the devices worked on a battery, the defibrillator also had power,” anesthesiologist Khotamjon Nazarov said.

The deceased was married and had two children.

In the resuscitation department, although there is a second back-up line for electricity, we were surprised that there was no generator in case that too could fail.

This is not the first unpleasant situation in the medical department of Kurgantepa district. In May of this year, we reported that a woman who underwent an operation for acute appendicitis died after surgery. At that time, the prosecutor’s office announced that they had started an investigation, but no information was provided on its outcome.

A forensic medical examination was appointed on the death of Shuhratbek Abdukahhorov. Kun.uz follows the development of events.