RAWALPINDI:
A fact-finding committee found two senior doctors of the pediatrics surgery department of Holy Family Hospital (HFH), the city’s largest hospital, to be negligent in the case of 11-year-old Kainat, who died post-surgery.
The fact-finding report has been sent to the secretary of health. The Vice Chancellor of Rawalpindi Medical University has also formed a high-level inquiry committee and demanded a report within twenty-four hours. On August 15, the Chief Minister’s Special Monitoring Unit had already raised several questions on the treatment system in the hospital, pointing out negligence, mismanagement and bad governance.
The specifics of the case show that 11-year-old Kainat, who was under treatment in the pediatrics surgery department of Holy Family Hospital, was suffering from severe abdominal pain. The doctors could not correctly diagnose her illness and performed an appendix operation, but Kainat, crying and screaming from pain, died shortly afterwards in the hospital on August 29.
Following protests and demands for justice from Kainat’s parents, the hospital’s Medical Superintendent, Dr Ijaz Butt, formed a three-member fact-finding inquiry committee.
The committee confirmed negligence and delay in treatment by two senior doctors in Kainat’s case. Hospital sources said that due to security reasons, the names of the two senior doctors found guilty of negligence cannot be disclosed.
Meanwhile, on the basis of the fact-finding committee’s report and the request of the MS Holy Family, the Vice Chancellor of Rawalpindi Medical University Dr Muhammad Umar also ordered an investigation into the matter. A high-level inquiry committee has been formed to hold the negligent doctors responsible. It has been instructed to submit its report within twenty-four hours. The high-level inquiry committee is chaired by Rawalpindi Medical College Principal of Dr Jahangir Sarwar and Professor of Surgery and includes Head of the Anesthesia Department at HFH Jawad Zaheer, and HFH Additional Medical Superintendent Dr Nadeem Malik as members.
Like other hospitals in Rawalpindi, the Special Monitoring Unit, which visited HFH on August 15, had raised numerous questions on the hospital’s system of treatment. The unit had pointed out negligence of doctors and staff, lack of medicines, mismanagement, poor governance and cleanliness issues, while issuing recommendations for reforms, after which this tragic incident took place.
