Police on Sunday arrested two more staffers of the Darul Sehat Hospital in Gulistan-e-Jauhar in connection with an incident involving wrong medication that left a nine-month-old girl, Nishwa, paralysed on April 14.
Police investigators made the arrests by acting on information provided by an already arrested suspect, Agha Moiz. Those arrested are administration in-charge Shahbaz and nursing in-charge Arif Javed.
The investigators said they were also looking for the remaining four suspects involved in the shocking incident. The two arrested suspects will be produced before a court today (Monday) for remand. The investigators said they had also sent another notice a house of the owner of the hospital, Amir Chishti.
Nishwa became paralysed due to wrong medical treatment at the hospital on April 14 when an overdose of potassium chloride had affected her brain severely, leaving her nearly brain-dead.
She is currently under treatment at Liaquat National Hospital. The Sharae Faisal police have registered a case against the administration of the hospital on a complaint submitted by Nishwa’s family.
Two-member probe body
A two-member committee of senior most pediatricians, Prof Jamal Raza and Prof MN Laal, summoned the administration of the Darul Sehat Hospital at the National Institute of Child Health (NICH) on April 16 to probe the alleged wrong administration of the drug.
The shocking incident resulted in a strong protest by the parents and civil society, and compelling the authorities concerned to initiate a probe into the maltreatment and criminal negligence on the part of the private hospital’s management.
Three parallel probes are underway at the moment, one each by the Sindh police, the Sindh Health Care Commission (SHCC) and the two-member committee formed by the chief minister to fixe responsibility in the Nashwa case, while Darul Sehat Hospital has already admitted its error, offering to bear all the expenses incurred on the treatment of the ill-fated child.
On April 16, Executive Director Darul Sehat Hospital Shahzad Alam appeared before the committee at the NICH and presented the hospital’s version and later told newsmen that they were doing their best to support the treatment of child at Liaquat National Hospital.