Parents of ailing infants share their ordeal at AKU

Karachi
A fruit-vendor by profession, Saeedullah was overjoyed at the birth of twin sons a couple of weeks ago. But his joy was cut short when one of the babies passed away within minutes due to birth-related complications. To add to his misery, the gynaecologist told Saeedullah to take his surviving baby to the Aga Khan Hospital (AKUH) immediately or be ready to lose him too.
“I only earn a few hundred rupees every day, enough to just be able to feed my family,” he said. “I don’t even have the money to get my child admitted in a small hospital of Landhi.”
However, the gynaecologist insisted that he take his son to the AKUH. When he did, his son was immediately admitted and at the neonatal intensive care unit (ICU). Saeedullah’s son was released eight days later and is good shape now.
“I didn’t pay a single penny to the hospital and all the expenses of the treatment were borne by the patient welfare service of the AKU,” said an overjoyed Saeedullah, while speaking at a small ceremony where parents of ailing children treated at the neonatal ICU shared their experiences. “I had not even dreamt of such high standards of medical professionalism and care would be provided to my son Usman.”
The AKU’s neonatal ICU was expanded recently to accommodate 24 beds due to a generous donation by the English Biscuit Manufacturers (EBM) worth Rs200 million to provide state-of-the-art treatment facilities to a large number of infants in need of specialised care and treatment.
“Around 550 to 600 children are brought here at NICU of AKU every year,” said its chief Dr Muhammad Sohail Salat. “The mortality rate here is between four to nine percent, which is even lower than developed countries.”
In Pakistan, said Dr Salat, the infant mortality rate was 69 out of 1,000 live births, highest in the region while the rate of pre-term and premature births was also alarmingly high.
“Our health system needs improvement,” he said. “What we are doing can be done in the public sector too but that would require dedicated attention of the authorities, to hire trained and qualified human resource, and make use of modern technology.”
Several other parents also spoke on the occasion. “I, too, had delivered twin baby girls, one of whom died while the other was very fragile and needed a miracle to survive. Now Zehra is eight months old and is doing fine,” said Mrs Altaf Bilwani whose infant daughter survived being put on a ventilator for nearly 25 days.
Adil Zameer, hailing from Rahim Yar Khan, had rushed his baby Karachi by air from Multan where his pre-term son was born but diagnosed with unknown infections. He spoke on the ceremony via telephone and said though taking the flight to Karachi had been a risk, it was eventually worth it because it cured his son.
Two girls, 19-year-old Arisha and 11-year-old Naqiba were among the oldest patients at the NICU, and were also present on the occasion with their families.