SUKKUR: A four-year-old boy brought to the Thull Taluka Hospital for emergency treatment of breathing problem died as some of the doctors that were supposed to be on duty were not present there and some others appeared in no mood to attend to any patient.

Attaullah Dashti, a resident of Mohammad Panah Dashti village of Thull taluka in Jacobabad, took his four-year-old son, Safiullah, whose condition had turned serious due to breathing problem, to hospital on Thursday night. He and his accompanying relatives were told that no doctor was available at the moment.

The desperate father, after failing to persuade the hospital staff to call up one of the 30 doctors supposed to be present in hospital, even went to the residences of some duty doctors but they appeared in no mood to attend to a patient. Mr Dashti said his son needed to be put on oxygen on an emergency basis but the hospital staff did not do that for want of a doctor’s advice.

He said finding no other option, he tried to take his son to a private clinic or hospital but it was too late as the boy breathed his last in the process.

Shocked over his son’s death, the emotionally charged father kept asking the hospital staff what was the use of such a big hospital and a large number of staff sitting there when a patient requiring emergency treatment could not be attended to. He said patients of poor families were seen going through the same ordeal while he had been there for a few hours.

In an immediate reaction to the incident, activists of the Sindh Taraqqi-pasand Party (STP) led by its taluka president Sarwaan Lashari held a protest demonstration and sit-in outside the Jacobabad Press Club.

Published in Dawn, June 27th, 2020