Civil Hospital doctor held responsible for Dr Furqan’s death
The probe body has found Dr Jagdish, FCPS of Dr Ruth Fau guilty of negligence and has called for action against him
KARACHI: The inquiry committee constituted by the Sindh government to investigate the circumstances leading to the death of Dr Furqan-ul-Haq on Wednesday has held a senior doctor of Civil Hospital Karachi for negligence.
Haq, a retired doctor, was tested positive for COVID-19 a few days ago and died on Sunday morning after he was allegedly denied treatment at various public and private hospitals in Karachi. The Sindh government subsequently launched an inquiry into the death.
In the inquiry report, the probe body has found Dr Jagdish, FCPS of Dr Ruth Fau (Civil Hospital Karachi), guilty of negligence and has called for immediate action against him.
Read also: No record of Karachi doctor being brought to hospital: SIUT spokesperson
The report also stated that Dr Jagdish hadn’t shown deliberate malpractice in the case but his ‘irresponsibility’ had caused Dr Furqan’s death.
Dr Jagdish had attended Haq upon his arrival to Civil Hospital and had reportedly denied him the treatment while referring him to another hospital despite his deteriorating condition and nine vacant beds in the Intensive Care unit (ICU) of the medical facility.
As per the details in the report, Dr Furqan was not fit for travelling further and needed immediate medical aid but the ambulance driver took Dr Furqan home instead of taking him to another hospital.
Dr Furqan was again taken to a private medical facility where doctors asked him to be transferred to a ventilator immediately. However, when he was taken to Dow University Ojha campus, Dr Furqan had already expired.
According to the two-page report, Dr Furqan tested positive on April 30 but refused to go to a hospital. Later, on his family’s insistence, he was taken to Sindh Institute of Urology and Transplant (SIUT) through Aman Foundation ambulance service.
However, the ambulance driver unnecessarily delayed in taking Dr Furqan to the hospital. He couldn’t contact the referred doctors in SIUT and therefore he rushed to the Civil Hospital Emergency instead, read the report.
Moreover, the inquiry committee has also recorded statements of 14 witnesses in the case.
The death of Dr Haq due to the unavailability of beds at the intensive care units of any health facility in Karachi, as reported by his wife, led to outrage on social media and doctors expressed shock at the treatment meted out to their former colleague.