Aga Khan, Liaquat National hospitals receive majority of victims

Patel Hospital ended up referring several patients to larger facilities.

KARACHI: A majority of the victims from the Abbas Town blasts have been shifted to Aga Khan University Hospital (AKUH) and Liaquat National Hospital. While some were referred to the facility due to the nature of their injuries, others decided to do so to get better treatment.

According to the AKUH spokesperson Rasool Sarang, nearly 60 injured people from Sunday’s blast are currently under treatment at their facility. “Over a hundred injured persons were received, out of which six died.”

Meanwhile in Liaquat National Hospital, a total of 28 people are under treatment. Most of these injured persons are in the orthopaedic and plastic surgery wards, while a few in neurosurgical cases have also come in.

Initially, several victims were rushed to Abbasi Shaheed Hospital but the families took them to other facilities. “We had only two injured men admitted at Abbasi but they moved to another hospital,” said Abbasi’s medico-legal officer Zaffar Shah Khan. “Around 23 injured people came in but most of them were discharged.”

Given its proximity to the blast site, Patel Hospital received most of the injured people.  “This was the nearest hospital and a large number of people gathered so the emergency area was almost jammed,” said Patel Hospital administrator Abdul Latif. The hospital struggled to manage the crowds and the attendants, which is why they started referring all incoming blast victims to other bigger hospitals.

Even larger hospitals were struggling to deal with the crowd. “It is far difficult to manage the crowd than to treat an injured person,” admitted an AKUH doctor. “Yesterday was one of the worst as the treatment was repeatedly disturbed by the crowd.”

Approximately 33 bodies were, however, taken straight to Jinnah hospital. Ten injured people were also admitted but all of them were discharged on Monday, except for four. Dr Seemin Jamali, head of Jinnah hospital’s emergency ward, said they have handed over 30 bodies to the families and they have yet to identify the three remaining ones.

Live to tell the tale

Nazleen Fatima and her husband, Tasleem Haider, were lucky that the blast took place when they were about 100 metres away. The couple was taken to Jinnah hospital, where Haider recalled the horrific evening. “There was just fire all around me and complete darkness. I could hear people crying.” Another patient at Jinnah hospital, Asmatullah was sitting in his balcony when the blast took place. “The blast happened as soon as I left the balcony. Something hit me and I ran towards the stairs,” he said. With injuries on his back, Asmatullah got on a rickshaw and rushed to his house in Gulshan-e-Iqbal. Neurosurgeon Dr Aurangez said that Asmatullah will be discharged soon.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 5^th, 2013.