AMBULANCE sirens, volunteers, people on gurneys, panicked faces, children crying … the little 4ft x 8ft room next to the emergency ward entrance allows the medico-legal officer (MLO) there a good view to everything. Gunshots, road traffic accidents, poisoning, burn cases … a busy day in the life of an MLO may also include grenade and bomb attacks, not to mention post-mortem examinations.

Today is like any other day. Someone from Pirabad in Orangi drinks bleach instead of lemonade and is brought in as a poisoning case. The casualty medical officer (CMO) refers the case to the MLO who already has a few usual reasons for consuming poison in his mind such as failing in exams, jilted by a love interest, etc. But here he can see that this really is a mistake. He hadn’t even consumed much and after throwing up once or twice his chances of survival also seemed bright. Still the CMO isn’t satisfied and asks for the MLO to intervene. Now an officer from the police station in his area of residence is required to record his statement. But the officer arrives only to find that the patient felt better and went back home.

Meanwhile, the CMO’s certificate is needed by the MLO where another person brought in is found not fit to give a statement. The CMO won’t really be needed to confirm his unfit status if the person was in surgery though as then it is understood automatically.

The person bringing in a case is important in the investigation later on. Normally, the MLO takes down this person’s details in his medico-legal register. But the accident victim found by the roadside by a 70-year-old concerned citizen becomes an objection to the rule. The septuagenarian brought him to the hospital but doesn’t want to be dragged into the matter any further. The MLO understands as he gestures for him to leave.

A man arrives with papers from the burns ward. A 55-year-old woman has been brought in from Naudero. She has 19 per cent burns. The case will be forwarded to the Eidgah police station as all the Sindh interior cases coming to a hospital, civil in this case, are referred to the police station under whose jurisdiction a hospital falls. People can get burned in an attack or in an accident. A kitchen accident won’t be referred to the MLO but other incidents of burning carry implications warranting his or her services. This particular woman burned her thighs while squatting in front of a camp fire. “Muchh kacheri, they call it,” says the MLO as he jots down the woman’s name, age, marks of identification, address, nature of the case, place where the incident occurred, occupation, history, time of arrival at the hospital, etc. There is much paperwork and no computers. Records are maintained in files and registers.

Right then, two men bring in a gunshot case from Lyari. The bullet went in from the left thigh of the man shot to lodge in the right. “Two entries and one exit,” notes the MLO. The man says that he was supervising the repair of his car at a workshop when he got injured by a stray bullet in Kalakot. Helping the MLO note his details, his attendants mention his age as 25 years. “He looks older,” the MLO observes. “Between 35 and 40 years of age,” he writes down, shaking his head quietly.

It is 7.30pm. Just a couple of pages are left in the ML register marked ‘201 to 250’. Meanwhile, a fresh ‘251 to 600’ register lies ready for entries in his desk drawer. Another case of poisoning arrives from Hub. The MLO shows the person, bringing the case to him, the door. He has no desire to be involved in the case himself and be summoned to courts in Balochistan over and over again. The final entries to complete 50 cases in the day are brought in. Two lads on a motorbike asked to stop near the High Court due to the ban on pillion riding got nervous and tried getting away.

Later, the Rangers caught up with them at Regal Chowk and shot them in the legs. One boy was expected to recover but the other was bleeding profusely from the femoral vein. The doctors didn’t expect him to survive unless they amputated the leg. “Why do people play with their lives like that?” the MLO shakes his head regrettably.