Patient who was refused treatment at Jinnah dies at PINS

LAHORE:A female patient who was allegedly denied emergency treatment at Jinnah Hospital a few days ago died due to excessive bleeding and blood clotting at the Punjab Institute of Neurosciences (PINS) on Thursday.

On May 5, a 28-year-old female patient, Nabila, wife of Zulfiqar and a resident of Pattoki, who was severely injured in an accident, was brought to the Jinnah Hospital’s emergency ward in a state of unconsciousness by the Rescue 1122 ambulance service.

The Rescue personnel alleged that the doctors at the emergency ward of Jinnah Hospital had refused to provide emergency treatment to the patient on the pretext of an out-of-order CT scan machine.

“We told the doctors that the patient was critical with very little time left, and therefore needed urgent emergency treatment,” they said, alleging that the doctors did not even provide a proper referral to shift the patient to another hospital, but rather misbehaved. The Rescue officials were forced to take the patient away from the hospital, whose life was hanging in the balance. At the time of denial of treatment, the patient’s two minor children, aged between three and four years, were also accompanying their mother.

The 1122 personnel then shifted the patient to Lahore General Hospital, where she was admitted to the ICU of Neurosurgery Ward-II at the Punjab Institute of Neurosciences (PINS). However, the patient could not survive and was declared deceased on Thursday due to excessive bleeding from the head and mouth as well as blood clotting.

Following the incident, the Specialized Healthcare and Medical Education Department (SHC&MED) constituted a two-member committee to probe the matter of the insensitivity of the administration and emergency doctors at Jinnah Hospital, Lahore. The committee, comprising Prof. Haroon Hamid, Professor of Paediatrics at King Edward Medical University Lahore (Convener), and Dr. Usman Ahmed, Assistant Professor of Neurosurgery at AIMC, Lahore (Member), shall investigate the matter and provide a report with clear recommendations to the secretary of the SHC&ME Department within a week.

Sources told The News the probe committee has recorded the statements of Rescue 1122 officials and the patient’s husband, Zulfiqar. The committee is required to submit its report to the secretary of the SHC&MED after a week.