Police arrest three more suspects in nine-month-old Nishwa’s case

Executive director of the hospital resigns, number of arrests in the case so far is four

KARACHI: Police arrested three more suspects in the case pertaining to nine-month old Nishwa, whose health deteriorated after being administered the wrong injection at the Darul Sehat Hospital. Admin Officer Ahmed Shehzad,  Nursing In-charge Sobia and another Nursing In-charge Atif Javed of Darul Sehat Hospital were arrested on Sunday by Sharae Faisal investigation police. This is the fourth arrest in the case so far.

Investigation Officer (IO) Aslam Mughal said that Nishwa’s father, Qaiser Ali, had nominated the three detainees in the statement he gave when the case was registered. According to the IO, Qaiser Ali has nominated six other persons in case No354/2019 and police are carrying out raids for their arrests. Mughal said that the police have issued another notice to the owner of Darul Sehat Hospital but he was not present at his house.

Mughal said that the arrested nursing in-charge, Javed, has said that Sobia - another employee at the hospital - was responsible for giving medication but she gave the injections to Moiz without labelling them. And while it was not Moiz’s job to administer the injections, he did so. As per Mughal, Javed claimed that the injections were mixed up as they weren’t labelled and the injection was also administered on the wrong side of the patient. Javed held Sobia responsible for the incident as according to him she was most at fault. He said that she should have administered the medication herself as it was her duty to do so.



Javed added that he had his weekly off on the day of this incident and was not present at the premises. He claimed that the hospital was not at fault, neither was it responsible for the incident as it did not permit this kind of negligence and mistakes on its premises. He added that Sobia has five years of experience in this field and is a senior employee.

Admin Officer Ahmed Shehzad claimed that he had nothing to with medication and treatment facilities at the hospital. He said that as far as he knew the incident had occurred due to Moiz’s negligence and added that he was sorry for Nishwa’s condition.

Moiz, another employee at the hospital, is the person who administered the injection to Nishwa. He was arrested after the case was registered at Sharae Faisal Police Station on Monday on behalf of Qaiser Ali. Speaking before a local court on Saturday, Moiz said the police was not taking action against the hospital administration. “It’s not my duty to give injections and medicines to the patients. I gave the Flagyl injection to Nishwa on the directives given by Dr Attiya and Miss Naz,” Moiz had maintained before the court.

Executive director resigns

Meanwhile, the Darul Sehat Hospital Executive Director Dr Shehzad Alam resigned from his post following the paralysis of Nishwa. His resignation was accepted by the board members of the hospital during a meeting on Saturday.



According to the hospital Vice Chairperson Dr Saeed Ali Farhan Razi, the meeting was held to discuss Nishwa’s case. Dr Razi said that the board members expressed anger and grief over the negligence of the hospital administration and staff during Nishwa’s treatment. They said that the hospital administration stood by Nishwa’s parents and the employees responsible for the negligence have been dismissed, he added. Dr Alam gave his resignation during the meeting and the board members accepted it.

Dr Razi said that the meeting decided that the hospital would provide all possible assistance to Nishwa’s parents for her treatment, and Liaquat National Hospital - where Nishwa is currently undergoing treatment - has been notified in this regard. Darul Sehat Hospital has said it will bear all expenses for her treatment.

According to Dr Razi, more than 2,000 patients visit the hospital on a daily basis and the performance of all staff members is monitored. He said that the board members were cooperating with the two-member medical investigation committee formed by the Sindh chief minister. The hospital administration has given all the facts of the case to the committee, he added. Sindh Health Care Commission has also carried out an inspection of the hospital and the board members await the commission’s report, said Dr Razi.