KARACHI: “Baba developed high-grade fever on the first day of fasting. It was extremely hot and there was no electricity at home that day. Initially, we couldn’t understand what had gone wrong with him and waited for his condition to improve.

Unfortunately, it worsened,” says Mohammad Munir, sitting by the bedside of his father in the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre’s (JPMC) ward five, while describing how his octogenarian father fell ill due to heatstroke.

Munir, a driver in Orangi town, took his father to two hospitals before coming to the JMPC six days ago.

“His condition is still not out of danger. We are giving him oxygen while keeping his body hydrated,” said Dr Waqar Abbasi, a young doctor attending to Munir’s father, adding that recovery in elderly patients was generally slow.

In the same ward is Zia-ur-Rehman, a resident of Landhi, looking after his 70-year-old father, another heatstroke patient, who has been unconscious for almost four days.

According to the JPMC staff, though the number of heatstroke patients has significantly decreased at the hospital over the past four days, there are still at least 50 patients under treatment at the health facility for damage caused by the failure of the body’s temperature regulating mechanism.

More than 350 mortalities have been reported at the hospital so far. They include at least 122 women. Most patients who died were over 50 years of age. At least 80 patients have been brought dead, countless have been discharged while some are still battling for their life.

“We took our sister to a hospital when she fell unconscious. She may have developed fever earlier but we couldn’t realise that since Qudsia is mentally and physically challenged,” says Masood Ahmed, tending to his sister, who is in her 30s.

Initially, the family residing in Shah Faisal Colony took her to a nearby hospital but then shifted her to the JPMC. “We couldn’t bring her here immediately because there was no ambulance available,” he says.

Zubaida Irshad shares the story of her mother who is receiving treatment for heatstroke, having had fever and complaining of shortness of breath for a day or two. “We came here yesterday. For the past three days, there has been no electricity at our home while we receive piped water after a gap of 10 days,” she says, adding that the family often had to drink water acquired through boring.

System needed for disasters

Speaking about how the hospital staff has managed to cope with the huge influx of patients in recent days, joint executive director and head of the emergency unit of the JPMC Dr Seemin Jamali said that the biggest problems the health facility faced were shortage of space in the emergency unit and lack of beds and stretchers.

“Though there were no shortages in medical supplies as the hospital maintains emergency supplies for 500 patients at all times, we ran short of beds and stretchers with an overwhelming increase in the number of patients.

“But, thanks to the timely help from people, we managed to overcome this issue. The media played an important role, highlighting the JPMC’s efforts that encouraged people to make donations. They are still coming for donations, which is simply amazing,” she said.

The hospital, she pointed out, even received air-conditioners from philanthropists. The equipment helped to provide the right cooling environment to patients in wards dedicated for heatstroke cases.

The support from the provincial health department and the army was also praised worthy, she said. “The army was the first to set up its camp inside the JPMC. Without its help, the hospital administration wouldn’t be able to distribute bottled water, juices and other stuff to patients and their attendants peacefully.

“Besides, their presence also gave the staff a sense of security while working amidst hundreds of patients and their attendants.”

The administration, she said, also deputed staff from other wards to the emergency unit to handle the large number of incoming patients.

According to Dr Jamali, disasters can’t be handled by one or two hospitals and an entire system is needed to manage it.

“It’s time that we develop standard operating procedures (SOPs) to cope with any major natural or accidental catastrophe in the city, the home we all share,” she said, regretting the immense human loss the city has suffered in recent days due to heatwave.

There was an immediate need to upgrade medical emergency services at other public and private sector hospitals and set up a central command and control system for ambulances, she noted.

Giving her feedback, Daizy Nasreen, the head nurse serving at the JPMC casualty ward for a decade, said that the hospital in its limited resources tried its best to provide round-the-clock quality treatment to patients but it was discouraging to come across patients that became aggressive and used abusive language.

“There were some incidents like this. But, thankfully, they were limited only to verbal attacks,” she said.

Published in Dawn, June 29th, 2015

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