LAHORE: Condition of three more snake-bite patients got critical at Jinnah Hospital on Monday due to ‘non-availability’ of the anti-venom which is said to be the only remedy for the fast recovery of victims from trauma.

All the three patients were not administered third dose of the anti-venom on Monday and two of them had to be put on ventilators at the ICU, an official privy to the information told Dawn.

The doctors said the ‘missing dose’ of the drug might lead to ‘irreparable health complications’ to patients.

He said the patients had received first two doses timely and the doctors had prescribed them third one on the basis of their test reports.

Ruefully, the health facility is once again making an old excuse of non-availability of the life saving anti-venom vaccine.

Earlier, a snake-bite patient, Jaffar, 30, had died on Sept 9 at the Bu Ali Sena ICU of the Jinnah Hospital when he, too, could not be administered the third dose of anti-venom.

The incident was probed by three inquiry committees and officials who were held responsible for the death of the young patient are yet to be ‘punished’. The findings of inquiries had declared the incident ‘an administrative failure rather than medical negligence’.

Of the three snake bite victims the condition of two patients, Sughran Bibi and 14-year-old Ammar, are said to be more serious.

He said Sughran was getting critical care at the main ICU of Jinnah Hospital (bed 20) and Ammar at Umar ICU (bed 6).

“Apparently it seems that the Jinnah Hospital administration has learnt no lesson from the previous incident of death of a snake-bite patient”, the official said.

He said Sughran had been shifted to the Jinnah Hospital from Manga Mandi about a week ago while Muhammad Shafique from Bhai Pheru on Sunday and Ammar on Oct 5.

Attendants of these patients were forced to depend on the hospital’s administration for the provision of free medicines due to the financial issue. “The main pharmacy of the Strengthening of Emergency Medical Services (SMS) is responsible for making available medicines to the emergency and other wards of the hospital,” the official said. However, pharmacy officials were unable to ensure the supply of anti-venom.

He said the ‘short medicine’ was usually arranged through Local Purchase (LP) but the process for the provision of the drug could not be initiated due to procedural delays.

The teaching institute has also run out of another life-saving drug -- morphine -- which is administered to bring critical patients back from a severe pain of heart attack.

The morphine had been included in the list of ‘banned items’ to restrict its sale in the open market in the wake of the ephedrine quota scam surfaced in April 2012.

Since then morphine is being supply to government hospitals under strict vigilance and standard operating procedure to avoid its misuse.

As the Jinnah Hospital is facing an acute shortage of morphine, its non-availability in the market too might pose serious threats to the lives of those visiting the hospital with severe chest pain.

Jinnah Hospital Chief Executive Prof Dr Mehmood Shaukat said that he would probe into the matter on Tuesday (today) to know the factual situation.

He said the patients who were put on ventilators were timely provided initial doses of the anti-venom.

“I suggest the government to establish separate snake-bite centers rather than making teaching hospitals overburden with such patients,” Dr Shaukat said.

He said it was not a constructive approach to develop a culture of making purchase of medicines through LP for snake-bite patients at teaching institutions.

“If the government is not in favour of establishing separate snake-bite centers, it should designate at least one teaching hospital to handle these particular cases,” he further suggested.

SEMS Pharmacy Deputy Director Dr Komal Khalid neither attended calls nor responded to the text messages.