Cause of dialysis incident in Nghe An: Due to 'RO water system'

This morning, August 5, Nghe An Department of Health held a press conference to inform about the medical incident regarding artificial kidney dialysis that occurred at Nghe An General Hospital.

According to the Department of Health, on August 4, the Expert Council established by the Department, including scientists in the province and two experts from Bach Mai Hospital, worked seriously, urgently, scientifically and came to the conclusion: The RO system has a completely normal RO water production and generation unit, the RO water delivery system to the machines has joints and bends, creating favorable conditions for bacteria to grow.

Area where medical incident occurred.

The Council recommends troubleshooting: Nghe An General Hospital reviews the entire process and hemodialysis system; replaces the entire RO water supply system according to prescribed standards.

Previously, as reported by Nghe An Newspaper, on July 30, during the dialysis process, 10 patients undergoing dialysis showed abnormal signs. Of these, 4 patients only had transient symptoms, which recovered spontaneously after the end of the dialysis session. After 30 minutes of monitoring at the hospital, no abnormal symptoms were found, so they were discharged. The remaining 6 patients showed more severe symptoms with chills, fever, fatigue, and difficulty breathing after 2-3 hours of dialysis. The patients had their fevers reduced and dialysis stopped. Of these, 3 patients had no symptoms after stopping dialysis for about 20-30 minutes. After monitoring, no severe symptoms were found, so they were discharged. The 3 patients showed symptoms of fever, chills, hypotension, and difficulty breathing, so they were transferred to the Intensive Care and Anti-Poisoning Department.