Seven hospital officials suspended after child dies at NICH

Karachi

The National Institute of Child Health (NICH) administration on Monday suspended three doctors, two nurses and two paramedics on protest of parents of four-year-old, Mujtaba, who died at the facility in the wee hours of Friday, following a surgical procedure on Thursday.

NICH’s Deputy Director Dr Arshad Domki while speaking to The News said an inquiry committee was constituted on the complaint of the child’s father, Imran, who alleged the hospital’s staff was negligent of their duties.

The committee initially suspended three doctors, two nurses and two paramedics of ward 19-B of the hospital till further inquiries were done, he added.

The committee comprising Dr Domki, Dr Khalid Mahmood and Dr Nasir Saleem, would record statements of doctors, paramedics, nurses and other hospital staff while the CCTV footage would also be looked at.

The incident was brought to the hospital administration’s notice by a supervisor, who claimed the boy admitted at ward 19-B had to be shifted to the emergency ward last week since there were no doctors or paramedics available to take care of the child who was critically ill.

He further informed that the child had undergone surgery and needed constant monitoring but he was left unattended, he started having seizures and by the time his attendants noticed he had a high fever. However, no doctors or paramedics were available to take care of the boy.

The boy was taken to the emergency ward by the parents themselves, where he died during treatment.

Following his death, doctors at the emergency ward blamed the staff at ward 19-B for not taking due care of the child after the surgery.

Dr Domki further informed that inquiry committee had recorded statements of the concerned staff at ward 19-B of the hospital and would speak to doctors of the emergency ward today (on Tuesday).

“The incident is unfortunate and we are trying our best to find out what went wrong. There is a possibility that the child died due to natural causes but that would too be determined after the completion of the inquiry,” he added.

Those suspended on the orders of NICH Director Dr Jamal Raza included Dr Roshan, Dr Maria and Dr Ishrat, all postgraduate trainees at the hospital, while nurses Mumtaz Bibi and Rizwana Perveen, and paediatric technician Aijaz Kamran and nurse aid, Muhammad Fayyaz, were also among those suspended by the hospital administration.

The letter of suspension directed all these doctors and paramedics to “sit outside the office” of the NICH director from 9:00am to 2:00pm, instead of reporting to their ward duties.