A woman from Chanapora in city outskirts died at Sher-e-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences Soura here for want of a ventilator, her relatives said on Saturday.
The relatives of the deceased woman namely Tasleema Shah (48), wife of Nisar Ahmad Shah, resident of Friends Colony Chanapora, told that the she fell unconscious after her mother-in-law, who was also her aunt, died on Thursday evening.
The family immediately rushed her to Florence Hospital Chanapora where from she was referred to SKIMS Soura, said Dr Abdul Majeed, one of her close relatives.
At SKIMS, she was admitted in Intensive Care Unit after some important medical tests including CT scan were conducted on her, said Majeed. “She was in need of ventilator but there was no available ventilator and the doctors put her on umbobag which ultimately became cause of her death,” he added.
Earlier, he said, intibution tube was inserted to the patient and that the procedure was done without mandatory ABG test. When Majeed approached concerned Registrar, he was manhandled and humiliated.
“After seeing this unprofessional and inhuman practice, I raised alarm but I was thrashed and thrown out by the security guards. If these people including Director and Medical Superintendent can arrange ventilators for influential persons why not for a commoner?” he asked.
Admitting delay in providing ventilator, SKIMS Medical Superintendent Dr Farooq Jan told that there is some shortage of ventilators “because the hospital sees rush of patients from across the Kashmir”.
“It is true that there was a delay. Though we have adequate number of ventilators but sometimes due to rush of patients we fell short of these ventilators. Also, we cannot ask patient to leave the ventilator for another,” he said.
Dr Farooq also admitted that there is shortage of technical staff for ICUs, saying: “We don’t have adequate resources and we operate according to Indian standard.” With regard to ABG test, he contested the claim of deceased woman’s relative and also feigned ignorance about the manhandling.
