Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: A young man suffering from epilepsy died at the PIMS Hospital in the presence of many doctors and nurses due to the shortage of ventilators in the emergency section of the hospital. This was stated to Daily Times by the relative of the deceased on Monday.

A young man, Muhammad Wazir, belonging to Mianwali was brought here for treatment when he fainted at noon and was admitted to the emergency ward.

An emergency ward, always crowded with patients owing to shortage of medical facilities in the capital, has not got even a single ventilator, which is enough to decipher the apathy of the hospital administration and the ministry of CA&DD toward the patients.

The doctors on duty directed the paramedic staff to put him on a ventilator as he was unconscious and his condition was deteriorating with the passage of time, an eye witness told Daily Times.

The relatives of the patients were told that there was no ventilator in the emergency ward so they had him shifted from the emergency ward to another ward where a ventilator was available.

But before reaching the ventilator the patient Muhammad Wazir passed away and his relatives began to protest against the PIMS administration. The protesters also demanded an inquiry of the incident to identify those responsible for the death of the patient.

Daily Times later on contacted the PIMS Administrator, Dr, Altaf, who was reinstated recently. He told this scribe that there were 92 ventilators in the different wards of the hospital but unluckily at that time all these ventilators were occupied by other patients.

This scribe was told by another doctor on condition of not being identified that more than 12 ventilators were donated to the PIMS new emergency section but the same is yet to be inaugurated.

These ventilators were arranged by former administrator, Dr, Fazale Maula, who has now been repatriated to the KP government as a result of court judgment.

A new emergency ward has been constructed at a cost of Rs 142 million and all these funds were donated by some philanthropists of the city.

The new emergency ward is likely to be inaugurated by Maryam Nawaz, the daughter of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif. She is also overseeing the development work in the capital but due to her busy schedule the emergency ward has not yet been opened.

The source said that 12 new ventilators would be made operational when the new emergency ward gets inaugurated by Maryam Nawaz, who is now bogged down in the Panama leaks litigation, being adjudicated in the Supreme Court and the inauguration of the new emergency wars is likely to be further delayed.