LAHORE: An elderly woman died after jumping from the second floor of Jinnah Hospital on Wednesday.

Zubaida of Deepalpur, Okara district, was brought to the hospital by her son Nasir Ali five days ago and the doctors admitted her to the Surgical Unit for treatment. She was suffering from mental problems and was also asthmatic.

This was the third such death at the hospital in just a couple of months. Earlier, two men had jumped from the 4th floor of the indoor building and died.

Zubaida often roamed in the ward with a blanket wrapped around her and did not talk to anyone, a witness told Dawn.

A guard sitting at the entrance of the unit said the woman came to him and wanted to go outside alone. He said he stopped her from leaving the ward without an attendant, adding that she wanted to go home.

A nurse said the woman had come to the nurses’ counter twice and tried to climb over it, giving an impression that she was suffering from a mental problem.

A woman whose mother was admitted to the same unit said around 9:30am Zubaida went to the washroom of the ward and did not turn up till 10:30am when her son asked about his mother. They told him she had gone to the toilet and not come back. She further said they checked the washroom and did not find anyone inside, while a window inside was found open.

The woman said later a security guard told Zubaida’s son that his mother had been admitted to the emergency ward as she jumped from the window of the washroom.

Nasir Ali said he had been asked by a doctor to get medicines and when he got back he was taken to the emergency ward and told his mother had jumped from the building.

Relatives of the patient criticised the hospital administration for not making proper arrangements despite knowing that many psychiatry patients were under treatment there. They said windows of the unit were damaged and no one from the administration had noticed this loophole. They also said installation of grills on all windows of the upper storey of the hospital could avert such incidents in the future.

Published in Dawn, April 7th, 2016