MY two-month-old grandson had to be admitted to hospital because of earache and fever. We were asked to take him to the apparently ‘upscale’, seriously overrated hospital in Karachi functioning since the 1980s. The harrowing experience will always be embedded in our minds for as long as we live. The innocent baby was pricked with cannula in both his hands and feet as all his veins were ruptured by the undergraduates who were roaming the hospital corridors looking for their prey. Yes, prey, not patients, for all they were interested in was ‘practice’.

The distressed mother called for help multiple times as the cannula kept falling off the baby’s tiny wrists and feet. The staff had the audacity to blame the anguished mother for ‘mismanaging’ the needles. They had no word of advice as to what was needed to be done. All they had were abusive looks on their faces.

Even the members of the support staff were hopelessly inept. The mother could not go to the rest room, pray, leave the room to sterilise water or milk bottles because the baby could not be left alone. The senselessly foolish staff refused point blank to pay heed to her requests. The baby lost his weight in two days because of constant crying and torture by these rude people.

The baby’s echocardiography was another nightmare. We were told to feed the baby, put him to sleep, then keep him hungry for five hours so he could be taken in for echo when he sleeps. The baby slept for a good three hours, but no one bothered to take him until he woke up. A hungry infant was forcibly expected to lie straight for 30 minutes for the echo. Then they sedated him and took him.

The doctors designated to see our little bundle of joy were unapproachable. They were either not there, or were unwilling to hear the cry of the miserable mother. To top it all, after puncturing the baby’s veins, we were told that his haemoglobin level was too low. It was shocking to hear at discharge that the basis of haemoglobin being low, as we had feared all along, was the constant puncturing of the veins at the time of cannula insertion.

The apathy that was on display in the slaughterhouse (yes, slaughterhouse, not hospital) cannot be explained in words. And, lest it me be mistaken, it was not us alone who were in misery. I personally saw other patients in a similar situation. The callousness was all pervasive and there was nothing discriminatory about it.

For sure, we are never entering this slaughterhouse again. And, yes, again, it was a slaughterhouse, not a hospital at all.

Tasneem Allibhoy Tharia
Karachi

Published in Dawn, May 3rd, 2024