Two doctors flee from court after bail rejected in Nashwa case

Owners of Darul Sehat Hospital, Amir Chishti and Farhan, are also on interim bail

KARACHI: The East district and sessions court judge rejected on Friday bail pleas of two doctors accused in Nashwa case after which the doctors fled from the court premises and managed to escape.

The police have nominated more than 20 people as accused. Five accused, Nursing In-charge Atif Javed, Admin Officer Ahmed Shehzad, Waleedur Rehman, Nursing Assistant Moiz and Midwife Sobia, are in jail on judicial remand while more than 10 accused are on the run. The accused doctors were on the run, but they appeared before the court on Friday after getting protective bail.

The owners of Darul Sehat Hospital (DSH), Amir Chishti and Farhan, are also on interim bail.

Nashwa Ali was brought to the DSH on April 6, along with her twin sister, Amisha Ali, for treatment of diarrhoea. The girls' condition improved a day after treatment.

However, before discharging the infant patients, the staff administered an injection to Nashwa after which her heartbeat abnormally increased. The infant was shifted to the hospital's ICU where she was placed on a ventilator.

The victim's father, Qaiser Ali, had claimed that the incident occurred due to wrong administration of potassium chloride (KCL) injection by untrained hospital staff.

Seeing no recovery in the child's condition for a week, she was shifted to an ICU at Liaquat National Hospital on April 15, where she died a week later.

The DSH had admitted to negligence on their part.

Qaiser registered an FIR against the hospital administration for negligence, but later he sought inclusion of Section 302 of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC), murder charges, against the hospital. The court had ordered inclusion of Section 322 of the PPC, murder due to negligence and carelessness, in the case, but on Thursday, the investigation officer included Section 302 in the interim challan that was submitted.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 4^th, 2019.