Death during YDA strike: Child’s autopsy report reveals natural death

PMA demands govt cancel murder case against four doctors.

LAHORE:

Pakistan Medical Association (PMA) Secretary General Dr Izhar Chaudhry said on Monday that the autopsy report on a child who died during the doctors’ strike had shown that case against the doctors was wrong.

The child died at Mayo Hospital on July 1 during the Young Doctor’s Association (YDA) strike at emergency wards after a police raid to arrest some doctors at Services Hospital. He said that the four doctors, who were on duty at the time of the incident, had told police that the child was suffering from a heart disease (congestive cardiac failure) and was brought to the emergency in a critical condition.

They said the parents were informed about the child’s situation and told to prepare for the worst.

They had also told police that no doctor had removed a drip on this or any other patient. They also said that the child was kept on artificial ventilation and given a cardiac massage. The treatment continued for six hours but the child did not survive, he said.

Dr Chaudhry said the FIR against the doctors had been shown to be baseless. He said it was unfortunate that the case was registered by the police and not reffered to the Health Care Commission Punjab.

PMA office bearers were demanding that the government cancel the FIR, which was registered for political reasons.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 24^th, 2012.