Lucknow: Woman Claims 'Wrong' COVID Report Delayed Brother's Surgery

Lucknow: A woman on Friday claimed that a hospital in Lucknow postponed a crucial surgery of her 25-year-old brother because she was wrongly tested positive for COVID-19 by a private laboratory. Commenting on the issue, officials said the matter will be probed. The private lab gave her a COVID-19 positive report despite she not having any symptoms of the problem, a fact that was confirmed in another report by a different lab in a gap of two days, the woman claimed, adding the discrepancy has led to incorrect information in the official records. However, Chandan Speciality Lab, which gave the positive report, stuck by its result of the RT-PCR test even as the Lucknow administration said the matter will be probed. The discrepancy in the test results will be probed by the chief medical officer, Lucknow District Magistrate Abhishek Prakash told PTI.

According to the woman, her brother was to undergo a surgery on September 24 for a kidney-related ailment at St Joseph Hospital, which had sought a COVID-19 test report of not only the patient but his family members too before admitting him. My brother, parents and I got tested at the hospital, which sends its samples to Chandan Speciality Lab in Lucknow. All three tested negative but the lab report showed me positive for COVID-19. I had absolutely no symptoms or problem so I decided to get tested again at another lab, which confirmed I was not infected and my report was negative, the woman, who works for a US-based multinational firm, told PTI. But, she said due to the earlier wrong positive report by the lad, the hospital denied admitting her brother for the surgery, leaving him in unbearable pain for a fortnight and the family in unnecessary trauma.

The goof up by the private lab is traumatising. My brother is in pain. My name has wrongly gone as a COVID-19 positive patient in the government’s database and my parents are worried. It’s sad that such a private lab has gone scot-free for a mistake that could be life altering for a family, she said. When contacted, a representative of the private lab said, We stick by our test report. Our lab is approved by the ICMR (Indian Council for Medical Research).

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