Court extends bail of DUSH owners

Prime suspects in the case, two doctors, fled from the court after their bail plea was denied

KARACHI: A local court extended on Saturday the interim bails of Darul Sehat Hospital (DUSH) owners, Amir Chishti and Farhan, till May 7 in Nashwa's case. Chishti and Farhan appeared before the court. The bail had previously been granted against the surety of Rs300,000. According to police, both accused were on the run.

The two doctors who are the prime suspects in this case escaped from the court premises after their bail was rejected by East district and sessions judge on Friday. Both accused, Dr Attiya and Dr Sharjeel appeared before the court. They fled from the premises and managed to escape when their bail pleas were rejected.



The police have nominated more than 20 people as accused in the case. 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.

Meanwhile, Sindh High Court (SHC) suspended on Friday the order of the Sindh Health Care Commission (SHCC) to seal DUSH and summoned a response from the commission's board, chief secretary, health secretary and the Advocate-General on the hospital administration's plea against "extreme action without notice".

The plaintiff's counsel maintained that the hospital had complied with all of SHCC's recommendations immediately. Nevertheless, the SHCC had then ordered to seal the facility. In fact, the counsel pointed out, there was no proper order on record but simply a hand-written note on the Memorandum of Sealing which stated that the action had been taken in compliance of the order from the health minister.

After hearing the arguments, the court ordered the suspension of the SHCC's order to seal the hospital, while directing it to comply with the commission's recommendations. In the meantime, the court also summoned replies from the defendants by May 25.  Nashwa Ali was brought to DUSH 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 the 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.

DUSH had admitted to negligence on their part.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 5^th, 2019.