Health on high alert: Chaos and confusion, sirens and screams

Hospitals of the twin cities crammed with injured PTI, PAT workers and policemen

ISLAMABAD: Stretchers kept streaming in. Some carried injured protesters on their shoulders, others held them from their limbs. At one point, there were so many coming in for treatment the entrance to the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (Pims) was blocked with stretchers and people, many of them women and children.

Pims reported three deaths on Sunday, all were Pakistan Awami Tehreek (PAT) workers. Two men succumbed to their fatal abdominal and head injuries from Saturday night’s clashes between the protesters and the police. Another died of a heart attack after he fell into a ditch dug for the under-construction Metro Bus Project.

Over 700 were injured in all hospitals of Islamabad and Rawalpindi, of which 100 were brought to Pims late Sunday night.

With the cascade of sirens and screams, the entrance of the hospital echoed with chants of ‘Go, Nawaz, Go’. Inside, many were crying and yelling, while others remained silent, strangely shocked and still amid the chaos and confusion. Some were going from one bed to another, encouraging the injured to “stay alive and committed in time of crisis”.

Medical staff, however, would also go from bed to bed pleading with people to vacate the area, especially the main entrance to avoid “putting lives of the injured in danger”. But the slogans became louder and the people angrier as more injured protesters were brought in.

The situation at the Polyclinic hospital was not different. So far the hospital has received 350 injured, including 35 women, 14 children, 43 policemen, and the remaining male workers of both PAT and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI). “A majority of the injured women left the hospital after getting treatment as they started begging the doctors to let them go back to become part of the Inqilab again,” Dr Tanveer Malik, the spokesperson for the Polyclinic hospital, told The Express Tribune.

Separately, 21 injured people were brought to two major hospitals of Rawalpindi since Saturday evening. Benazir Bhutto Hospital (BBH) Casualty Medical Officer Dr Waqar said 11 people – including four women and two-year-old girl – were brought to the hospital with minor injuries and were released after necessary treatment.

According to the hospital’s record, Syed Nadeem, Muhammad Yaseen, Akhtar Abasi and two women whose names could not be ascertained were brought into the BBH after clashes of PTI and PAT workers with the police Saturday evening. They were released after being administered first aid.

Similarly, 10 injured, including two policemen and a toddler, were brought to the Holy Family Hospital. They suffered from head injuries and breathing problems.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 1^st, 2014.