Malpractice: Legal action against house officer, nurse recommended

Bisma Bibi died at AMC after intravenous injection was administered incorrectly

ABBOTABAD: An enquiry report on Monday recommended legal action against a house officer and a nurse who were held responsible for the death of a girl at Ayub Medical Complex (AMC).

A 12-year-old girl, Bisma Bibi, died at AMC in December 2015 and her mother, Ishrat Bibi of Neelor in Mansehra, held doctors and nursing staff responsible for her death and demanded registration of a murder case.

According to official sources at AMC, surgical ward in charge Dr Khalid Khan conducted an enquiry and found house officer Dr Wadood and nurse Shamsa were responsible for Bisma Bibi’s death. Khalid recommended both disciplinary and legal actions against the culprits who administered an antibiotic injection intramuscularly instead of intravenously which proved fatal for the patient.

The past

Ishrat Bibi had filed a complaint with the police and hospital administration contending Bisma Bibi had complained of severe abdominal pain on December 23, 2015 and was shifted to King Abdullah Teaching Hospital in Mansehra. The doctors there diagnosed appendicitis and said she needed surgery at Ayub Medical Complex Abbottabad.

Ishrat Bibi said on December 24, 2015 doctors at AMC confirmed Bisma Bibi needed an appendectomy and sent her to surgical ward A to fulfil pre-surgery requirements. “I was asked to bring medicines from the pharmacy and the doctor in charge asked a nurse to administer medicine to my daughter who was to be operated upon within the next few hours,” said Ishrat Bibi.

She added her daughter’s condition deteriorated and she became unconscious as soon as she was administered an injection by the nurse. “When doctors were asked to examine her, they took her to intensive care unit (ICU) and put her on a ventilator. “On the night of December 25, 2015, they told me Bisma was dead and handed me her body without explaining the cause of her death. Before the injection was administered, Bisma was normal and just complaining of pain in her abdomen,” her mother said. “I did not know taking her to AMC for treatment would cost my child’s life,” she said. She added after her husband Habib was murdered six months ago, the sudden death of her daughter has been an extremely traumatic experience.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 5^th, 2016.