KARACHI (Staff Report) – Family members of two women, who were brought to the Liaquat National Hospital for child birth but died during the treatment, have expressed outrage and disappointment on social media at the treatment of the patients that led to their deaths.
The families alleged the expectant mothers died because of maltreatment from the hospital staff and gynecologist concerned – Dr Shehnaz Hussaini. The allegations have been made on a Facebook page ‘Medical Negligence in Pakistan’, dedicated to victims of medical negligence in Pakistan.
In this latest case, Omerul Islam brought his nine-month pregnant wife, Shaista Omer, to the hospital at 10:45am following severe pains. Shaista was taken to the labour room, while the husband was asked to wait outside.
Islam contacted Dr Hussaini through text messages and explained her the condition of his wife. “The case was of a baby with a cord around the neck that required a C-section as recommended by her consultant doctor, Dr Shahnaz Hussaini,” mentioned on the Facebook page.
The couple insisted the hospital staff to contact Dr Hussaini, as the case was complicated, but they did not take their request seriously. “The patient insisted for Dr Shahnaz as she was not feeling well but neither the hospital nor the doctor bothered to respond.”
Dr Hussaini arrived at the hospital at 8:45pm and Shaista was taken to the operation theater, where a baby boy was delivered at 9:00pm.
The doctor told Islam that his wife would be kept in the ICU for one day due to complications during the birth. She was preparing to leave the hospital premises when the patient’s family insisted her to stay in the ICU where doctors tried to get Shaista’s heartbeat back.
The family saw Shaista for the first time in the ICU since she was taken to the labour room.
“She (Shaista) was put on a ventilator … He (Islam) saw profuse quantities of blood everywhere and Shaista’s lower body part dripping with blood.”
Islam blames Dr Hussaini and another doctor on duty, Dr Farah, for Shaista’s death and has requested the authorities concerned to revoke their medical practice licenses.
Following this incident, another woman, Anusheh Ahmer gave a similar account on the social media of what happened with her sister, who was also a patient of Dr Shehnaz Hussaini.
In a facebook post, Ahmer alleges that Dr Hussaini was responsible for the death of her sister. “We were given our sister bleeding profusely from every part of her body and was bruised all over.”
The doctor performed C-section on the patient, which went on for 10 hours, and walked out of the hospital without informing the family about her condition. “My sister had died long before all this happened in the operation theater and we were not even informed.”
Dr Shehnaz Hussaini has, however, not responded to the allegations leveled against her.
