NAROWAL: A minor girl died from snakebite after she was allegedly denied treatment at multiple public hospitals despite reaching there on time.

Thirteen-year-old Ayesha, the daughter of Muhammad Yasin, a resident of Kamalpur Chishtian, tehsil Pasrur of district Sialkot, was a student of Class VIII. She was asleep in a bedroom of her house at night when a snake bit her left hand.

Yasin told Dawn his daughter was bitten by a snake at 9:30pm while she was sleeping. She was immediately shifted to the Tehsil Headquarters (THQ) Hospital Pasrur on a motorcycle but the doctor was absent from duty while the paramedics refused to give her treatment.

The doctor was called to the hospital who checked Ayesha but told her family that the hospital did not have antivenom and the facility of laboratory tests.

Yasin said the doctor asked him to take his daughter to the Narowal District Headquarters (DHQ) Hospital or some other hospital in Sialkot or Lahore. He said they immediately reached the Narowal DHQ Hospital but the doctors on duty did not pay any attention to his daughter. He alleged that as his daughter was writhing in severe pain on the hospital bed, the apathetic doctors were busy playing games on mobile phones.

Yasin said when he told the duty doctor about Ayesha’s condition, he was asked to take her to a private hospital. Disappointed by the behaviour of the doctors, he decided to take his daughter to a private hospital but as she was being taken to a private hospital in Narowal, she breathed her last.

Yasin was upset as there was neither antivenom for snakebite at the THQ Pasarur nor a lab test facility there while the DHQ Hospital Narowal had antivenom and laboratory test facility but the doctor did not have time to treat his daughter.

Yasin and his other family members demanded Chief Minister Mohsin Naqvi take notice of the situation and fix responsibility for their daughter’s death.

Dr Muhammad Rehan, the chief executive officer of the District Health Authority Sialkot, said the antivenom for snakebite was available at the THQ Pasrur and the report on the minor girl’s death had been sought from the medical superintendent (MS) of the hospital.

Narowal DC Muhammad Ashraf, who is also the chairman of the district health authority, said an inquiry had been ordered to probe the incident. He said action would be taken against the responsible if the allegation proved true.

An attempt was made to contact Deputy Commissioner Adnan Mahmood Awan, also the chairman of District Health Authority Sialkot, regarding the incident but no response was received from him.

DHQ Hospital Narowal MS Dr Muhammad Afzal Rajput and Narowal District Health Authority Dr Naveed Haider were also not available to give their version.

Published in Dawn, September 16th, 2023