I WENT to collect my blood test reports from the Aga Khan Laboratory Specimen Collection Unit on Khayaban-i-Sehar in Phase 6, DHA, on April 15 at 10.15am. As I parked my car in front of the lab and stepped out, very heavy and sharp tiles hit my head from a worn-out building next to the lab.

I started bleeding and shouted for help. The security guards of the lab came out and told me to sit in the car as the tiles kept falling on my head.

I begged the guards to tell someone inside the lab to call an ambulance or take me to a hospital. But they went inside and closed the door.

I have an Aga Khan medical card for 32 years and am their regular cardiac patient. I have all my blood tests done at their lab. What a shame for this inhuman behaviour. I was visiting their lab and I strongly believe it was their responsibility to immediately rush me to hospital.

In a helpless excessive bleeding condition, I drove to a closeby store and asked for help to take me to a hospital.

People gathered but did not come forward to help. How could they be so inhuman? This accident could take place with anybody.

Finally a driver (an angel sent by Allah) took me to DHA Medical Centre where I was given medical aid and rushed to a hospital in an ambulance.

I was handled very professionally by the hospital emergency staff and admitted. I had critical head injuries and I am still under treatment by the hospital’s neurology department.

I request the Aga Khan hospital’s management to investigate this incidence and inform me and its patients about their policy in this regard.

Have they instructed their lab staff to behave so ruthlessly with patients visiting them?

Does the Aga Khan hospital ensure that their lab surrounding constructions are safe for the life of patients visiting them?

The labs should be located in safe places. People should also have some compassion and ethical values of life.

Shamim Sagheer

Karachi

Published in Dawn, May 8th, 2019