RAWALPINDI: Dozens gathered outside Benazir Bhutto Hospital (BBH) on Wednesday to protest alleged negligence that they said led to the death of a five month old child at the hospital, while the parents and relatives of an 11-year-old child placed his body on a road in Morgah to protest negligence by medical professionals.

The deceased, Issa Fazal, was brought to BBH from Kotli Sattian. The baby’s death first sparked unrest amongst his relatives in the BBH emergency department, who protested outside.

The family also blocked Murree Road for two hours, and shouted slogans against the hospital doctors. They demanded that the Punjab chief minister take notice of the doctors’ negligence.

Relatives of deceased baby protested outside BBH, family of 11-year-old allege negligence by private hospital’s staff

According to relatives of the deceased, the child was first taken to New Murree Hospital by his father Fazal Mohallah Satti because he was having trouble breathing.

They were referred to the Murree Tehsil Headquarters Hospital, where doctors referred the child to BBH. The baby was given oxygen when they arrived at BBH, but because his condition was deteriorating he was then moved to the intensive care unit (ICU).

The relatives of the child alleged that ICU doctors did not treat him properly for an hour, and when the child’s mother raised this issue the doctors misbehaved. It was during this time, they said, that the baby dies.

The family lodged an application against the hospital’s administration and the on-duty doctors.

BBH medical superintendent Dr Khalid Randhawa, however, claimed that the child was properly treated but the family had misbehaved with nursing staff.

“We have formed a five-member committee led by additional medical superintendent Dr Fauzia Saeed, and it will investigate the issue within a few days and prepare a report on the incident,” he said.

Morgah

The parents and relatives of 11-year-old Abdullah Imran placed his body on a road near a joint check-post in Morgah, threw stones at the building of a private hospital and blocked traffic to protest alleged negligence by hospital staff.

The protest led the police to register a criminal case against two doctors, nursing staff and operation theatre staff for ‘unintentional murder’, and the district administration also sealed the hospital in question.

Imran’s father Imran Saddiq lodged an FIR with Morgah police in which he said he brought his son to a private hospital Tuesday evening because he was complaining of a headache.

He said attempted to call the night duty doctor, another doctor, a nurse and the operation theatre in-charge when his son’s condition began deteriorating at the hospital at night, but no one responded to him.

He also alleged that the night duty doctor took Rs60,000 for him on the pretext that he would operate on his son and then left the hospital without doing so. He said that when his son’s condition began deteriorating he tried calling the doctor and nursing staff to attend to him, but his son died at 7am on Wednesday.

The police have registered a case based on Mr Saddiq’s complaint. The investigating officer told Dawn police had begun carrying out raids to arrest the suspects. He added that the unintentional murder charge could be converted to murder if any wrongdoing comes to light in the post-mortem report.

Wednesday’s protest led to long queues of vehicles while shopkeepers in nearby markets panicked after the protesters threw stones at the hospital building.

HFH

The son of a cancer patient who died at the Holy Family Hospital (HFH) was arrested for allegedly misbehaving with doctors.

Mohammad Qamar from Ayubia had brought his mother Sanjeeda Khatoom to the HFH emergency department and she was admitted to medical unit no.2 upon his insistence.

The woman’s relatives claimed the patient was not treated well, and when her son asked doctors to provide her with treatment they physically assaulted him.

The doctors called the police, who then shifted the man to the New Town police station.

HFH medical superintendent Dr Shahzad Ahmed said the patient was suffering from cancer and was in her last stages, and the doctors treated her according to the standard operating procedures for such patients.

He said the patient’s attendant was very aggressive and forced female doctors not to attend to patients other than his mother. Dr Ahmed added that the hospital had asked the police to release the man on humanitarian grounds so he could go to the burial.

Published in Dawn, September 27th, 2018