26 January 2004	Monday	03 Zilhaj 1424

PESHAWAR, Jan 25: Parents of children admitted to the nursery ward of Khyber Teaching Hospital (KTH) staged a protest on Sunday, against what they said was the non-professional attitude of doctors after the death of a nine-day-old baby boy here on Sunday.

The parents had gathered outside the hospital and raised slogans against the KTH administration for allegedly not providing proper treatment to their ailing children.

The child's mother, Mrs Farooq, alleged: "My nine-day-old son has died today owing to the negligence of doctors." With tears in her eyes, she also alleged that the doctors did not allow her to see her son over the last four days.

She said that her son had contracted jaundice and had been referred by the children specialist Dr Imran to be admitted in KTH for treatment. And unfortunately no doctor looked after her son and on Sunday he expired, she claimed. She also blamed the ward orderly and the nursing staff of KMH for allegedly taking money from the parents of the sick children.

Kamal Hussain, a resident of Ghari Faizullah, was also among the protesters, said that there was virtually no laboratory in the hospital as the doctors refer all the medical tests to a nearby privately-run Johar Khatoon Hospital.

Doctor on duty at the nursery ward, Dr Sulman rejected the allegations of the protesters and said that the deceased baby was admitted to the hospital in serious condition and the hospital twice exchanged the blood of the baby (to save its life). The baby boy was on intravenous fluids for feeding, which was obviously painful for the parents and that was why the doctors were not allowing the parents to see the patient, Dr Sulman said.

He added that the hospital conducts laboratory tests only from 10am to 12pm, and during the other timings the doctors had to send the patients' kin to laboratories outside the hospital for the necessary medical tests.