KARACHI, May 30: Senior doctors of the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre and the National Institute of Child Health have categorically denied if any newborn baby had gone missing or was kidnapped from their premises during the week, as claimed by a woman, Shazia.
Speaking at a press briefing at the JPMC on Tuesday, doctors maintained that both health centres had no details, at any stage, of the delivery of a baby boy by Shazia, wife of Arshad, at the JPMC's Gynaecology ward, or about the shifting and admission of any baby, as specified by Shazia, to the NICH.
Moreover, Shazia too had failed to produce any documentary evidence to support her claim of having delivered a baby at the JPMC, the doctors said.
They said that the whole episode was a "fraud" and needed thorough investigation since such out-of-proportion blown-up incidents damaged the services delivered by public sector healthcare system.
Briefing journalists, the Executive Director of the JPMC, Dr Mashoor Alam, said that investigations carried out by the police and doctors had provided enough room to say that the claims of Shazia, of having delivered a baby, who was later kidnapped in connivance with some hospital staff, were all baseless and fabricated.
Till Tuesday afternoon, Shazia had been examined by three panels of doctors, including one of a private hospital, but at no stage was she found carrying signs of delivery in the near past.
Shazia and Arshad, appearing as a married couple, about six days back had lodged an FIR with the Saddar police, stating that their child born at the JPMC on May 23 was kidnapped or stolen by another woman at the NICH.
Addressing newsmen, the Director of the NICH, Dr Afroze Sherali, said that it was all a ridiculous situation created by a woman, who had never conceived a child nor had delivered a baby recently.
“Despite the fact that there appeared nothing in favour of Shazia's claims, I have checked the hospital records of the current month.
“And based on that, and in view of the foolproof system of admissions and discharges and record keeping that we have I can say that it was all a drama, and the media should not find any high profile development in it.”
Dr Shireen Bhutta, head of the JPMC’s Gynaecology department, who was the first to examine Shazia after the intervention of police, said that reports submitted by a senior woman medico-legal officer of the Civil Hospital, had also confirmed her findings that the claimant had no signs of any recent delivery.
As per the statement recorded, Shazia, married in March 2005, delivered a baby boy at the JPMC on May 23, 2006 at 5pm. It was a premature delivery, of seven months, and so the neonate was brought to the NICH.
The claimant, 18-19, also did not remember her last menstrual period, included the CHK report.
Dr Bhutta, who was flanked by Dr Seemin Jamali and Dr Nagina Fatima, said she had information that Shazia was examined for the third time at the Liaquat National Hospital on Tuesday morning and there too, doctors had found that her posing to be pregnant was incorrect.
The nurses, who were alleged of handling Shazia, said they saw Shazia for the first time in the ward on Friday (May 26).
She showed herself as Pashto-speaking but also understanding Urdu, changing her stances every time, which created doubts about her, they maintained.
She said that the projection of such a case was tantamount to demoralizing us.
Replying to questions, both Dr Alam and Dr Sherali said they did not remember any case of change of babies or their kidnapping or stealing at their respective centres during the last 10 years.
