KARACHI: “We were tired and thought of sitting on the footpath for a few minutes to take a breather while waiting for the bus after my check-up at the Kidney Centre,” said an injured and quite dazed Samrina under treatment in the JPMC’s neurosurgery trauma centre.

The woman in her early twenties with her head bandaged and several bruises on the right side of her body was one of a family of three on whom a small section of the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre’s (JPMC) boundary wall on Rafiquee Shaheed Road fell on Monday morning. As a result of the incident, Samrina’s father, Ali Asghar, died and her mother, Rasheeda Bibi, was injured.

“I had been complaining of pain in my kidneys for several days, so my parents brought me to the Kidney Centre for a check-up. We live in Landhi. It was a long way back and we were just resting on the footpath when the wall behind us just collapsed. At first I didn’t even understand what had happened. Then I frantically looked to see if my parents were okay. They were not moving, even when people around came running to our assistance. It must have been around 11am then,” she said before drifting off.

Samrina’s elder brother Yasir Ali, standing next to his sister’s bed, said he was at his bicycle shop at Bhains Colony when he got his sister’s call from the hospital informing him about the accident and the death of their father. “In my rush to get here, I forgot to lock my shop. Now I learn that our mother also received a severe head injury and it is touch and go for her, too,” he said quietly.

“My father ran his own slippers and sandals shop in Bhains Colony. We had only been concerned about Samrina’s complaining of chronic pain in the kidney area. And now suddenly we are orphans,” he said.

Asked if they had complained to the hospital authorities about their negligence regarding building maintenance as a result of which the wall fell on them, Yasir Ali shook his head. “What happened is unfortunate but it was God’s will,” he said.

Meanwhile, a police officer, interviewing Samrina while documenting evidence, remarked that the wall was weak. He added that people had told him that the wall also had a notice pasted on it for passers-by to not lean or push too hard against it. “But uneducated people couldn’t read it, of course,” he remarked.

“I can read but I don’t remember seeing any such notice on the wall,” said Samrina on hearing what he said. “Besides, none of us were leaning against the wall. We were just sitting on the footpath.”

JPMC executive director Prof Anisuddin Bhatti was not available for comment. His mobile phone was also switched off on Monday.

Published in Dawn September 20th, 2016