ISLAMABAD: Under a rickety tent on Constitution Avenue, Sajjad Hussain looks on with concern as a group of men carry the limp body of a protester towards him.

The unconscious man is Mohammad Ali, who had suffered a fit and collapsed to the ground only minutes ago. His head has cracked open and a steady rush of blood oozes from his scalp.

The men lift him into the shade of the medical tent and lay him out on a makeshift stretcher; a couple of metal crates covered with a coarse rug.

Sajjad, who is a trained operation theatre assistant at a local hospital, takes half a razor blade and crudely shaves off the hair on Ali’s head, exposing the wound. Armed only with some gauze, liquid disinfectant and stitching needles, he tends to the man’s wounds as best as he can.

As Sajjad tends to Ali, his brother Hanif looks on with a pained expression. When he is asked to take Ali to the hospital, he refuses.

“Hospitals are off limits. The police are waiting there to arrest us. They have picked up several of our friends from hospitals in the past,” says Hanif as he helps his now conscious brother to his feet.

Afraid of going to hospital, many wounded protesters risk long-term harm by avoiding proper medical care

They turn around and hobble out of the medical tent, set up by the Minhaj Foundation to tend to the medical needs of protesters at D-Chowk.

Sajjad has been volunteering at the tent for several days now. He has had to work round the clock and has tended to everything from throat infections to first aid for rudimentary wounds. But lately, he says, the strain has gotten to him.

“There are about eight to ten patients every day who either need first aid, stitching up or, in some cases, serious medical attention,” the former boy scout tells Dawn.

Medical assistants and doctors working at such camps on Constitution Avenue are concerned about injuries caused from broken glass, broken bones or other injures caused by heavy tent poles collapsing on hapless victims and even wounds from the fights that break out from time to time among protesters.

Sajjad’s biggest concern, however, is that many of his regular patients need proper medical attention, but they are unwilling to risk going to hospital.

Raja Shabbir is one of those who come to see Sajjad every day. The 55-year-old he sports an ungainly metal brace on his frail left arm, which was broken during clashes between police and protesters some weeks ago.

Shabbir insists that he was shot twice, once in the arm and once in the abdomen. He lifts up his shirt to reveal an unsightly entry wound and proudly says that the bullet is still inside him.

“The doctors told me they need to take the bullet out, but it’s not safe for me to go to the hospital. Police are waiting for Pakistan Awami Tehreek workers to show up at hospitals,” he tells Dawn.

Mohammad Khalil also bears the scars from clashes with police. He of the riots been carrying the scars from the riots between the police and the protestors end of last month.

Khalil also claims he was shot in the abdomen with a live round. X-Rays show that the bullet is lodged at an awkward angle, close to his spinal cord.

“Doctors have told me that I might be better off if I let the bullet be. Although they said they would need to do more scans, but the verdict is that any surgery runs the risk of leaving me paralysed for life,” he says.

Sajjad also told Dawn about another ond of his regular patients, whose shoulder was broken by a gunshot from close range. The bullet is apparently still lodged inside the injured shoulder and the wound, if not treated immediately, could become badly infected and may have to be amputated to prevent further damage or even death.

“Another patient of mine was shot in the chest. He has also begun to showing signs of infection,” he says, adding that most of his regulars come see him twice a day.

Dr Ghulam Mustafa, a homeopathic doctor who runs his own medical camp at the site of the sit-ins, says that the unhygienic environment at D-Chowk is the reason for most protesters’ health problems.

“There is a shortage of potable water, garbage and faeces lie in the open, while medical waste, such as syringes and used bandages, have also not been disposed of properly,” he says.

Then there is the stench, that emanates from heaps of refuse piled in the area between Pakistan Secretariat and D-Chowk. A major health hazard, no measures have been taken to clear the refuse, which could potentially spawn an outbreak of disease among the protesters.

Published in Dawn, September 22nd , 2014