LARKANA: A lawyer, supported by many enraged members of his professional community, has succeeded in getting an FIR registered against seven doctors and 16 other staffers of the Chandka Medical College Hospital (CMCH) after his teenage daughter’s death during treatment, allegedly due to their negligence and irresponsible attitude towards the patient.

Advocate Abdul Sattar Hulio, on late Thursday evening, called out a number of his professional colleagues for a protest demonstration at SSP Chowk to press the police to register his FIR.

In his FIR (No. 59/2024), Advocate Hulio nominated CMCH Medical Superintendent Dr Rahul, Resident Medical Officer Dr Adeel aka Adil, Dr Ali Sagi, Dr Asadullah Sohu, Dr Allah Bakhsh Bhutto, Dr Hosh Mohammed and Dr Mohammed Hassan Shaikh as well as supervisor Nisar Larik and 15-16 other staffers. He alleged that his daughter, Amar Sindhu, 19, died due to their negligence.

The FIR was registered at the Civil Lines police station amid a noisy protest by lawyers against the CMCH staff.

Lawyer claims his teenage daughter died because of staff’s negligence, ill-attitude

Speaking to the media and police, Advocate Hulio said he had brought his daughter to the emergency unit of the CMCH on April 12. Since then, he claimed, doctors and the staff on duty had been demonstrating slackness in treatment. They kept prescribing one medicine after the other which he purchased and provided to them but the patient’s condition continued to deteriorate.

“They put her on oxygen using an unregulated cylinder (without a flow meter fitted on it). No consultant turned up to examine her despite repeated requests; only a postgraduate student arrived to see her and kept telling us that a consultant is on the way. At one stage, the doctors said that the patient direly needed to be put on ventilator, which was not available in the casualty unit.

The medical superintendent was informed about the entire episode but he appeared helpless,” Advocate Hulio alleged.

The most serious allegation levelled by the lawyer was that at a crucial stage, they (the nominated suspects) removed oxygen mask “in a fit of anger when I warned them of legal proceedings against them”. He said: “Removal of oxygen mask left me with no other option but to shift her to some other hospital, and I took her to the NICVD in a hurry but the doctors who examined my daughter there pronounced her dead”.

Registrar says police not proper forum

Reacting to the registration of the FIR against doctors and paramedics, the Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto Medical University registrar on Friday wrote a letter to the SSP concerned asking him to quash it and direct the Civil Lines SHO not to make any arrest in the matter.

In his letter, the registrar termed the FIR ‘false’.

He also cited different clauses and sections of the Sindh Healthcare Commission Act, 2013, and argued that the registration of the FIR was a violation of Section 29 of the Act. “As per Section 23(2) of the Act, the complaint should be lodged before the CEO of the commission who would prescribe the procedure for an investigation,” he maintained.

Quoting different verdicts given by Supreme Court and Sindh High Court in similar cases, the letter pointed out that FIRs of such nature were quashed in later stages.

Therefore, in view of the above, the FIR against doctors and paramedics be cancelled, the registrar stressed. Copies of the letter were sent to the registrar of the Sindh High Court, secretary of Universities and Boards, district and sessions judge, Larkana, and other authorities concerned.

Meanwhile, an urgent meeting of the Pakistan Medical Association, Young Doctors Organisation, Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto Medical University Teachers Association and paramedics’ organisation was held on Friday to review the situation arising out of the registration of FIR against doctors and paramedics. However, the meeting could not immediately decide a course of action, according to sources.

Published in Dawn, May 4th, 2024