KARACHI, April 7: Hina, a girl who lived in New Karachi, was married at the age of 16. About two years later she became pregnant. For pre-natal care, her husband registered her name with a private maternity home in Orangi Town.
Come the day of delivery and she was taken to this maternity home where she gave birth to a beautiful boy.
As she had not been attended by a qualified doctor during the delivery, Hina's condition began to deteriorate soon afterwards. Soon her family was told that since the maternity home did not have an oxygen cylinder, she needed to be shifted to another one. Hina was helped by her family to a nearby hospital where, too, no cylinder was available.
Hina was ultimately taken to a government hospital where she breathed her last. The epilogue was narrated by her father Bashir Ahmed at a meeting held at the PMA House on Wednesday. The event, entitled "Dialogue on State of Health Consumers' Rights", was sponsored by a non-governmental organization called Health and Nutrition Development Society (Hands) and the Pakistan Medical Association.
Analyzing the case, a renowned gynaecologist, Prof Sadiqua Jafarey, said that Hina did not die of shortage of oxygen in her system but because she was bleeding profusely after delivery. Dr Nighat Shah, another gynaecologist, said Hina's life could have been saved provided she was taken to a good hospital in time.
Several case studies were presented at the well-attended meeting, at which the medical and legal experts generally expressed dissatisfaction over the situation obtaining in the country's healthcare centres.
The people attending the event became emotional when one case after another, involving mishandling or neglect by health professionals, was narrated by the affected persons.
The participants of the meeting observed that the denial of access to health facilities was a clear violation of the fundamental human rights guaranteed in the constitution.
Prof Sadiqua Jafarey; Dr Asif Aslam of the Unicef; Zia A. Awan, advocate; obstetrician Dr Nighat Shah; and Dr Tanveer Ahmed of the Hands discussed in detail the local health scene.
The experts observed that the health care system was insufficient to cater to the needs of growing population of the country. Besides, there existed no mechanism to hold unqualified and unskilled medical staff accountable, who were involved in a majority of deaths in the country.
Prof Jafarey noted that exact statistics of maternal deaths were not available, as a majority of cases were never reported. Dr Asif Aslam said that only 15 per cent of the population benefited from the public health care system in Sindh whereas the private sector was providing service to the rest. "Good health is the right of every women and nobody can deny the right of women to have safe delivery," he remarked.
He said if the programme of lady health workers was implemented properly, the number of maternal deaths could be brought down to a great extent. Zia A. Awan felt that unfortunately the political will to resolve the problems of health and education were not visible anywhere as the social sectors could not gain enough importance in the eyes of politicians.
