Immigrant-US doctor shown door for injecting COVID-19 shots out of schedule

However a judge dismissed the charges against Dr Hasan Gokal as baseless, a district attorney vowed to present the matter to a grand jury. Gokal fears that the hospitals will not reemploy him until the case is resolved.

According to the details, on a night while performing his duty,  Dr Gokal  had six hours to save the jabs from rusting as the vial of COVID-19 vaccine was already opened. For the purpose he had to find 10 eligible people for its remaining doses before the precious medicine expired.

Hurling here and there Dr Gokal managed to contact 10 people and directed them to reach his home outside Houston. Other than the strangers, when few minutes were left before the vaccine became unusable, the doctor gave the last dose to his wife, who had a pulmonary disease.

The next morning, he said, he submitted the paperwork for the 10 people he had vaccinated the previous night, including his wife. He said he also informed his supervisor and colleagues of what he had done, and why. Several days later, the doctor said, that supervisor and the human resources director summoned him to ask whether he had administered 10 doses outside the scheduled event. He said he had, in keeping with guidelines not to waste the vaccine and was promptly fired. The officials maintained that he had violated protocol and should have returned the remaining doses to the office or thrown them away, the doctor recalled.

Later, for all his angel actions, Gokal was fired from his government job and then charged with stealing 10 vaccine doses worth a total of $135.

“It was my world coming down,” Gokal said in a interview. “To have everything collapse on you. God, it was the lowest moment in my life.”

Gokal said that in a conference call he was explained about the protocols for administering the Moderna vaccine. The 10 or 11 doses in a vial are viable for six hours after the seal is punctured. The advice was to vaccinate health care workers and residents in long-term-care facilities, then people over 65 or with a health condition that increases risk of severe COVID-related illness, he added.

Meanwhile he continues to pay a price for not wasting a vaccine. He lost his job. His wife struggles to sleep. His children are worried. And hospitals have told him not to come back until his case is resolved.