A consumer court in Kangra, Himachal Pradesh, has held a private nursing home negligent in the death of a woman who developed severe complications after receiving a blood transfusion during knee replacement surgery. Case background The patient was admitted to the nursing home on March 22, 2023, for total knee replacement of her left knee. Her vital signs were stable on admission, and her records showed no history of diabetes or hypertension. She underwent surgery on March 23. Before the procedure, the hospital advised her family to arrange a unit of blood for possible emergency use or transfusion.

The family obtained a packed red blood cell unit from a blood center, which was handed over to the hospital at 1:54 PM on March 23. Compatibility testing with the patient's sample was reported as positive. The blood was administered approximately 22 hours after it had been issued. Following…