Newborn dies for lack of ventilator

134 ventilators in Pindi’s three allied hospitals insufficient to cope with patient load

RAWALPINDI:

A newly born child died on Saturday due to the non-availability of a mechanical ventilator in the garrison city’s largest Holy Family Hospital.

The kid’s father kept searching for the life-saving medical device in other hospitals for three hours before the child breathed his last.

A ventilator mechanically helps pump oxygen into your body. In a hospital, ventilators are an essential requirement for critically ill patients who are being treated in an emergency, operation theatre, neurosurgery, paediatrics and other departments.

Sources said there are only 134 ventilators in Rawalpindi’s three government hospitals which provide healthcare facilities to the critical patients of Rawalpindi, Islamabad and Azad Kashmir.

According to sources, due to such a small number of ventilators in government hospitals, patients' lives are at risk.

“Due to the non-availability of ventilators, the family members of the patient are entrusted with the responsibility of searching for the ventilators in other hospitals and in the meantime, the patient loses his life,” he said.

The sources claimed that the number of available ventilators in the three major hospitals of the city was proving to be insufficient in face of the high influx of patients in these medical facilities but despite numerous requests by the hospitals’ administration, the government was not ready to increase the number of ventilators in these public health centres.

At present, the Benazir Bhutto General Hospital has 54 ventilators which are used by the patients in different departments. Similarly, the Holy Family Hospital has 60 ventilators while the District Headquarters Hospital, which houses the main department of neurosurgery, has only 20 ventilators which are used for other departments including neurosurgery.

There is an abnormal shortage of doctors, staff, beds and necessary equipment in the neurosurgery department of the DHQ Hospital where patients are brought from all districts of the Rawalpindi Division including Jhelum, Chakwal, Attock as well as from Islamabad and Azad Kashmir.

In all three government hospitals, whenever a patient is brought in a critical condition, the biggest question is the availability of a ventilator.

In case of non-availability of the ventilators in any of the three public hospitals, the relatives of the newly arrived patients are asked to find ventilators in private hospitals and take their patient there or wait until any of the patients, who are already on the ventilator, either recover or expire and thus, the attendants of the patient go through this ordeal.

A heart-breaking incident of this nature took place on Saturday at the Holy Family Hospital, where the new-born child of a citizen named Raja Rafiq was in a critical condition and needed a ventilator which was not available in the hospital and the child's father had to go out in search of it in other government and private hospitals of the city.

However, even after searching for the ventilator for three hours, he could not find a ventilator until his child breathed his last.

Earlier, the mother of a female journalist from the federal capital was brought in critical condition to a private hospital in Rawalpindi but due to the non-availability of ventilators in four major hospitals of the twin cities, the patient lost her life while waiting for the ventilator.

On the other hand, the hospitals’ administration said that they have informed the government that the hospitals have very low ventilators as compared to patients’ needs.

 

Published in The Express Tribune, February 6^th, 2023.a