Health: 15-year-old dies waiting for treatment

Civil Hospital MS accused of negligence.

SARGODHA:

A 15-year-old boy was killed and a man was injured on Friday when a QingQi rickshaw collided with a car in Chak 70.

The unidentified boy and the rickshaw driver, identified as Muhammad Javed, were taken to Civil Hospital, where they were both reported to be in critical condition. Doctors treating them said Javed had a severe head injury and needed to be checked by a neurosurgeon. Since there was no neurosurgeon at Civil Hospital, Javed was referred to a hospital in Faisalabad.

The boy, too, was referred to Faisalabad, but remained at the hospital since his family could not be traced. He succumbed to his injuries two hours later.

Rescue officials said the accident occurred at 8pm. They said the car had been speeding and ran into the rickshaw head-on. The car driver fled. Passers-by rushed to pull the two people out of the rickshaw that had overturned.

Muhammad Shahzad, a leader of the local scrap market Anjuman-i-Tajran, who was at his office close to the accident site, told The Express Tribune that he had rushed to help the injured.

He said when the boy was referred to Faisalabad, he called MS Iqbal Sami to request him to send the boy in a hospital ambulance since police had yet to locate and inform his parents. Shahzad alleged that Sami ignored his request and put hung up. He said Sami told him that there was no fuel for the ambulance.

The boy died at the Civil Hospital two hours later.

Several citizens and traders later protested against the MS’s alleged behaviour and held him responsible for the boy’s death. They demanded that an inquiry be initiated against the MS.

The MS denied the allegation. The body was sent to a morgue. Police said they were trying to locate his family.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 27^th, 2013.