Nashwa's father wants to implicate hospital owners in murder case

Police arrest fifth employee of the hospital, who was the security in-charge at the facility

KARACHI: The father of the infant, Nashwa, who died after being administered the wrong dose of medication at a private hospital, intends to register a case against the owners of the Darul Sehat Hospital, where the incident occurred.
According to the child's father, Qaiser Ali, who spoke to The Express Tribune after recording his statement at the Sharae Faisal Police Station on Friday evening, his legal team is working on a draft of the complaint on the basis of which a new FIR may be registered or the murder section could be added to the already existing case.

The FIR, which would include charges of murder, would be registered against the Darul Sehat Hospital's (DSH) owners and administration, Ali Chishti, Shehzad Alam and Ali Farhan.

Ali said that he had already recorded his statement with the police, which made the case for murder charges against the hospital's management. To a query, he said that there were three main issues on the basis of which the owners would be implicated. The first was that when the child was administered the wrong dose of medication, her heartbeat became erratic.

"Normally, there is a specialist to deal with such cases, but this hospital had no one on board," said Ali. Another point he raised was that the hospital had no specialised Intensive Care Unit for children and Nashwa was shifted to the adults' ICU. He added that the hospital administration risked his daughter's life to cover their mistake.



The third point, according to Ali, was that the hospital could've informed the parents that they did not have the capacity to deal with Nashwa's case and that she should be taken elsewhere. "But they chose to scare us by placing Nashwa on the ventilator, when they knew well that she could be shifted to another facility in an Aman ambulance," he said.

Warning of protest
Earlier in the day, Ali addressed a press conference at the Karachi Press Club, where he warned to start a protest campaign if his demands to arrest the hospital owners and seal the facility weren't met.
The victim's father said that they had registered a case under the section of negligence. He added, however, that now Section 302 of the Pakistan Penal Code, which deals with punishment for murder, should also be included.
According to Ali, it seemed that the owners were not being arrested due to pressure on the government organisations. He demanded that an independent investigation commission be formed under the supervision of a retired judge, adding, "We cannot give the future of our children in the hands of the Sindh Health Care Commission". Ali also asked political parties not try to colour it with their own political agendas.

Fifth arrest
Meanwhile, a local court remanded the fifth employee of the DSH to police custody till April 28 in the Nashwa case. The police presented DHS security in-charge Waleedur Rehman before the court of East judicial magistrate.
The accused, in his statement, before the court, said that he was picked up by the police a day earlier and had nothing to do with the incident. He claimed that the whole incident was being politicised.
Three other employees are already in police custody on remand while a fourth is in judicial custody.