Doctor’s ‘negligence’ takes life of newborn in Islamabad

ISLAMABAD: Alleged criminal negligence of a lady doctor in a private facility and dearth of neonatal intensive care in public hospitals claimed life of a newborn baby, whose mother was left to give birth in porch of a private clinic.

The incident did not take place in any remote area of the country, where women and infants die due to lack of maternal and newborn care, but in E-11-4 sector of the federal capital. More disturbingly, the incident happened at a private clinic, Uneza's Clinic, where people pay a hefty amount to get better medical treatment than public hospitals.

Shabbir Ahmad, father of the infant, was taking his wife, Sughra Shabbir, regularly for the past two-and-a-half months to Dr Uneza Khattak, who claims to be a Gynaecologist and Obstetrician, Sonologist and family physician and dietitian.

On July 12, Sughra began experiencing excruciating pain and went to see the doctor, who according to the family, prescribed pain killers to the expecting woman and sent the couple home saying the time had not arrived yet.



However, Ahmed had to take her wife back to the clinic at around six in the morning on July 13 when her condition started to deteriorate even further. Dr Khattak, however, did not turn up and the woman gave birth to the infant at the clinic’s driveway on a sofa.

When the doctor eventually arrived at the clinic, she instead of attending to infant and the mother lashed out at the couple for ‘making her driveway filthy’ and asked them to ‘first clean it’. Ahmed and his sister, who was accompanying the couple, obeyed and cleaned the porch.

According to the victim family, only the mother was admitted at the clinic and her 32-week premature newborn was left outside in hot and humid weather, where lying naked and surgical instruments on top of him, he kept struggling to breathe.

Dr Khattak not only refused to treat the newborn for an hour and a half, but also asked Ahmed to take him away suggesting that the ‘baby will soon die anyway’.

The newborn was first taken to Pakistan Institute of Medical Science (PIMS), which lacked an available incubator, then refused admission at KRL hospital, which subsequently provided an ambulance. According to the father, the hospital demanded Rs250,000 for the admission which he could not arrange at that time in emergency as he is a young Baloch migrant worker of few means and work as a cook.

Eventually, more than seven hours after birth, the baby was put in an incubator at Benazir Bhutto Hospital in Rawalpindi. However, he could not survive and passed away on July 14.



The couple said they first went to Pims, but they refused to give any care because she was a four-month pregnant and they only register expecting woman before three months.

Due to inappropriate medical care at government hospitals, Ahmed said he took his wife to a private clinic which cost them their child’s life. According to Shabbir Ahmed, they paid over Rs70,000 to the private clinic during their 15 to 20 visits in more than two months including medicines.

Dr Khattak also provided them medicines from her clinic, which is against the rules as doctors are not allowed to sell medicines. Ahmed also claimed that Dr Khattak’s maid used to treat her wife in her absence.

Dr Uneza Khttak refused to give her point of view when contacted, insisting to meet personally to give ‘her side of the story’.

Ironically, as there is no such mechanism in place in the federal capital to report such issues unlike provinces, the couple had to lodge a complaint at Golra police station.

Such cases of negligence are also reported to the Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PMDC), which then takes action against the doctors. When contacted, the PMDC officials said the doctor, as claiming to be a trained gynecologist and obstetrician on her visiting card, is not a registered postgraduate gynecologist and obstetrician with PMDC and only holds an MBBS degree.