"We rushed our brother (Dr Adnan, 26), who was serving at a hospital in Mingora, to Burn Care Centre of PIMS after he received burn injuries in Swabi due to absence of the facility in whole Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, but the delay in providing treatment to him resulted in his death," the deceased doctor's brother Furqan told Business Recorder.
Furqan requested Prime Minister Imran Khan and Chief Justice Asif Saeed Khan Khosa to take notice of the unfortunate incident, saying though he lost his brother at such a young age, incidents like this must not occur in future. "We shifted our brother to the BCC as he had received burn injuries but due to delay in providing timely treatment to him, he had a heart attack and died. Due to kidney failure, he was required dialysis on emergency basis but owing to absence of portable dialysis machine at BCC's Intensive Care Unit (ICU), the doctors couldn't conduct his dialysis and he died after his potassium level increased manifold," he said.
While narrating the painful story, Furqan said that the doctors' attitude was not only cruel with them but they also refused to give treatment to four other children who were screaming in ambulances due to burn injuries. "Even they did not provide first aid to the four children, leaving their parents with no option but to take them to somewhere else. God Knows what happened to them," he added.
With tears rolling down on his cheeks, he questioned, "Is this Naya Pakistan where doctors treat people like animals?" Following the death of his brother, he went to same facility to obtain the record of treatment given to his brother but the doctors refused to provide in an effort to hide their negligence. He said that top management of PIMS threatened two doctors of the hospital, who were friends of his brother, to stay quiet or be ready to be terminated from service.
The deceased doctor, who left behind an 18-month-old daughter, had received burn injuries due to gas leakage. Soon after the incident, he was shifted to a hospital of Pakistan Ordnance Factories (POF) Wah where no senior doctor was available and after first aid, he was referred to the PIMS' BCC.
"In the meanwhile, we also checked all other possible options including NESCOM Hospital but all the beds were already occupied there," he said. He said, "We decided to shift the patient to PIMS' Burn Centre which is thought to be one of the best burn centers of the country, but the way patients are treated speaks otherwise." "The attitude of staff was deplorable and highly non-professional. First they refused to get the patient admitted, but after they were told that both the patient and his wife are doctors, they gave us some space at the Burn Center's Emergency for a few hours for initial treatment and asked us to find some other hospital," he regretted. "A doctor on duty Dr Shazli was very rude and refused to admit or give any treatment to my brother," he said
He said that he also contacted Military Hospital Kharian, but the serious condition of the patient did not allow them to move out of Islamabad. He said that the patient was waiting for admission for over four hours and after a lot of requests, the BBC doctors admitted him. The deceased remained in the same facility for 24 hours and passed away next morning.
"This is the situation of a hospital in the federal capital and what to talk about hospitals in rural areas. And above all, the patient and his wife were doctors. What will these medics do with an ordinary patient?" he questioned.
When contacted, BBC spokesman said that doctors utilized all available resources to save the life of the patient.