Blame-game begins as ‘dead’ girl briefly comes back to life

Emergency workers say they were misled by family

THEKRI WALA:

The administration of the Children's Hospital, Faisalabad, and Rescue 1122 sources have denied the claim made by a family that their four-year-old daughter who had been undergoing treatment at the Children's Hospital Lahore was mistakenly pronounced dead by the doctors while she was actually alive.

According to Rescue 1122 sources, they received a call that Merab, the four-year-old daughter of Ghulam Abbas, had been undergoing treatment at the Children's Hospital Lahore “where the doctors pronounced the girl dead” and handed over the body to her family who took the body home.

Rescue 1122 was also told by the family that “while arranging the bath for the dead body of the girl, the family members noticed that the pulse of the girl was running so they immediately called the 1122 control room”.

Meanwhile, rescue staff reached the spot and gave the child artificial respiration. In a few moments, the girl's breathing and heartbeat got restored. She was shifted to the Children's Hospital, Faisalabad.

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However, it later transpired that the family’s version vis-à-vis the “doctors having pronounced the girl dead” was blatantly wrong. In fact officials even called it a lie.

According to Dr. Habib Buttar, the medical superintendent at the Children's Hospital, Faisalabad, “Rescue 1122 staff brought a girl named Merab, daughter of Ghulam Abbas, to us. The girl died a few hours after she was admitted”.

Referring to the Children's Hospital Lahore, Dr. Habib Buttar said that the management of the Children's Hospital Lahore did not issue the death certificate to them.

“According to my information, the girl's family saw the condition of the girl and took her home on their own. If she had died in Lahore Hospital, the Children's Hospital Lahore would have issued the death certificate,” he said.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 11^th, 2021.