Patient suffers burn injury, kin allege laxity by hospital staff

Samaan Lateef

Srinagar, February 20

A woman patient suffered severe burn injuries due to the alleged negligence of the paramedical staff at a private hospital in the Sopore area of north Kashmir.

Mehjabeena, 32, a resident of Wanigam village in north Kashmir’s Pattan subdistrict, developed blisters on her abdomen after she underwent a laparoscopic surgery for removal of gallbladder at Haji Sonaullah Hospital in Sopore on Tuesday.

The surgery started at 7.45 pm and was the patient was shifted from the operating theatre to the post-operative ward at 11 pm on Tuesday, her husband Muhammad Ashraf said.

“The paramedical staff had put a hot water bottle near her abdomen inside the theatre when she was unconscious. She developed blisters and they (theatre staff) did not inform us about the injury,” Ashraf said.

He said at 2 am, his wife developed pain near the abdomen after regaining consciousness. “When we lifted the theatre gown from her abdomen, we found burn injuries all over her abdomen,” he said.

The family of the woman has filed a complaint with the Sopore police, which have filed an FIR.

“We have launched preliminary investigation and arrested an employee of the hospital,” said SI Yasir Mehmood.

“The government should seal the hospital. They are killers here,” Mehjabeena told The Tribune.

She said the operating theatre had no heating arrangement and the staff used gas heaters to keep it warm. “I was shivering in the theatre before surgery. Similar is the situation in the post-operative wards,” she said.

Valley’s noted anaesthesiologist Dr Masood Rashid said: “We don’t advise the use of hot water bottle for warming patient whose body temperature drops during the surgery. The burn injuries in patients in post-operative wards are quite often reported due to the negligence of attendants and ward staff.”

Meanwhile, Dr Bashir Ahmad Tichak, who performed the surgery on the woman, said the patient developed burn injuries while she was being shifted from the theatre to the post-operative ward. Hospital head Dr Shaad Saleem was not available for comment.

The Doctors Association Kashmir has demanded an independent probe.