PIMS brawl: Doctors worried after attendants thrash their colleague

The incident occurred on Sunday after a critically injured patient died in the emergency room.

ISLAMABAD:

Doctors at the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (Pims) on Monday strongly condemned an incident in which junior doctors were thrashed by the attendant of a patient that died in the emergency department late on Sunday.

“After the incident, all the doctors are stressed and feel insecure. It has become difficult for us to run a hospital in such a situation,” said Professor Khaleequz Zaman, head of the Pims Neurosurgery Department.

Professor Mehmood Jamal, the acting chief of Pims, told the media that Abida, 60 and a resident of Sector I-9, was badly injured in a road accident near Sabzi Mandi and was brought to Pims by Rescue 1122 at around 5:30 pm.



“At that time there was no attendant with her, they came in at 5:45 pm,” he claimed.

On the other hand, The Express Tribune contacted Rescue 1122 Islamabad and Rawalpindi.

Zahid, a call operator at Rescue 1122 Islamabad and Waqas at Rescue 1122 Rawalpindi said that neither ambulance service had taken any injured woman to Pims on Sunday. Family sources claimed that the victims children brought her to the hospital.

Meanwhile, Prof Jamal said that Abida had suffered from head and chest injuries and was immediately taken to the resuscitation room, where a team of senior doctors made all efforts to save her life.

He further said a breathing tube was inserted, a CT scan and X-rays were performed, and an ECG was about to be taken when she died.

“During her treatment, the doctors kept telling her attendants that she was in critical condition,” he said.

Prof Jamal said that after Abida’s death, one of her daughters immediately screamed, “Doctors have killed her,” after which three to four men entered the emergency department and started beating up the doctors.

They beat the doctors with the metal stands used to hang drips and injured Dr Rashid, a junior doctor who is currently admitted in the intensive care unit (ICU), he said.

He further said that the body of the women was handed over to her relatives after 7pm, but one of her daughters is still admitted in the neurosurgical ward.

Margalla Police Station House Officer (SHO) Abdul Jabbar said Dr Rashid and Dr Rafi, who was also injured, lodged a First Information Report (FIR) in which they accused four or five people from the woman’s family of attacking them. The police registered an FIR against the unidentified attackers and arrested two people who later were released on bail.

SHO Jabbar said the police have not received the medical reports of the injured doctors yet.

Meanwhile, Mohammad Mudassir a relative of Abida, claimed that doctors did not give the deceased any kind of treatment. He said one of the doctors also threatened her daughter Anum when they tried to remove the body. He also claimed that the doctors threatened to poison Abida’s injured daughter and threw a dustbin at her son, while also accusing them of throwing the first punch.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 15^th, 2013.