Lawlessness: PIMS doctors thrashed after patient dies

Doctors say family refused timely treatment; family claims medical negligence.

ISLAMABAD:

Doctors at the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (Pims) on Thursday withdrew services from all inpatient departments except the emergency ward for more than three hours after some doctors were thrashed by attendants of a patient that died.

This incident interrupted patient care in a number of medical wards as doctors refused to work and demanded more security.

According to doctors, five to six attendants of the deceased became furious when they learnt of the death and started beating duty staff including Dr Huma and a nurse.

The attackers were identified as Muhammad Anwar, Yar Muhammad Khan and Shahbaz Anwar.

The doctors claimed Ayub grabbed Dr Huma and choked her till she fell to the floor. Meanwhile, Khan hit a female nurse with an iron rod and the third man thrashed Dr Kashif with his hands and feet.

“The attendants were screaming ‘kill all the doctors and nurses, they have killed our patient’,” said a doctor who asked not to be named.

The police later came in and subdued the situation before arresting the three men.

Dr Altaf Hussian, a senior Pims administration official, told The Express Tribune that Gul Naz,70, had late-stage renal disease and was brought to Pims three days back after been referred from Bilal Hospital, Rawalpindi.

“She needed to be put on dialysis immediately, but her family members opposed it,” he said.

On the day she died, her family relented and allowed doctors to put her on dialysis, “But it was too late. She died before getting dialysis,” he said.

Meanwhile the attendants claimed the death was caused due to the medical negligence.

“In my absence, the doctors killed my wife,” claimed Mohammad Nawaz, husband of Gul Naz and a resident of Mansehra district.

“My sons thrashed the doctors because they were responsible for their mother’s death,” he said.

The family refused to collect the body till the police released the arrested men. The police let the men go later and the body was collected around 7:30 pm.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 30^th, 2014.