Medical regulation: No progress in probe of death in unauthorised surgery

Police have detained husband of the suspect for a week without presenting him before a court.

SAMBRIAL:

Sambrial City police have yet to register the arrest of a man taken into custody a week ago in a murder case.

Investigation Officer Altaf Sindhu said they were questioning Tariq Mahmood, whose wife is accused of medical negligence leading to the death of a woman in Bhopalwala. He said the police would produce the suspect in a court when the interrogation was completed.

Advocate Muhammad Nafees, who is assisting the complainant Akram Cheema with the FIR, told The Express Tribune that the main suspect, Sameera Riaz, had contacted him a few days ago and asked him to persuade Cheema to settle the matter out of court. He said the police were informed about the location from where the call was received but they refused to raid the area to arrest the suspect.

The IO denied having received any information from Cheema’s counsel. He said the police were looking for the suspect. He said her clinic was raided on Thursday to collect evidence.

The FIR registered on a complaint by Akram Cheema, husband of the deceased, Hameedan Bibi, said Riaz, was a nurse by training and was running a clinic in Bhopalwala.  It accused Riaz of operating the deceased for, what she called were, tumors in her stomach. Hameedan Bibi died following the operation.

The report of a post-mortem examination later performed at Sambrial tehsil headquarters (THQ) hospital by Dr Abdul Wahhab stated that the woman had died from excessive bleeding.

Cheema said he had taken the deceased to Riaz’s clinic after she complained severe pain in her abdomen. He said they were told that her pain was caused by tumors in her stomach.

“She said she will have to perform a surgery to remove the tumors. I had to gather all my savings and borrowed some money to pay her for the surgery,” he said.

Negligence alleged in six-year-old’s death 

A six-year-old child died in Sargodha allegedly from negligence by doctors district headquarters (DHQ) hospital.

The child’s parents said he was denied treatment by doctors on duty at a children ward at the DHQ hospital. They said they later took the child to a private hospital but had to return to the DHQ hospital because there were no doctors at the private hospital. They said the child died on their way to the hospital.

Dr Sikandar Hayat, a spokesperson for the DHQ hospital, rejected the negligence allegation. He said the child had remained under treatment at the hospital for half an hour. He said his family later took him away saying they were not satisfied with the treatment.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 22^nd, 2012.